The Nature of Science with Owen Gingerich—October Series Kickoff

For Immediate Release
September 24, 2013

Media Relations
Cyndi McMahon, [email protected]
978.867.4236
@Gordon_CMcMahon

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WENHAM, MA—Gordon College welcomes Dr. Owen Gingerich to campus in October for three days of engaging conversation as the Center for Faith and Inquiry kicks off the 2013 Herrmann Lectures on Faith and Science speaker series. The lectures are designed to draw individuals, small groups and organizations engaged in issues of faith and science from New England and beyond into a richer, broader, enduring and more strategic dialogue.

Dr. Gingerich's lectures on the theme “On the Nature of Science” will take pace for three successive afternoons, starting on Wednesday, October 8, at 4:30 p.m. in the Ken Olsen Science Center, MacDonald Auditorium. A reception at 4 p.m. will precede each lecture. Dr. Gingerich will deliver a talk on October 8 titled “Was Copernicus Right?”; on October 9, “Was Darwin Right?”; and October 10, “Was Hoyle Right?” These events are free and open to the public.

“It is an honor and privilege to host Harvard’s Owen Gingerich as this year’s Herrmann lecturer,” says Tal Howard, Director of the Center for Faith and Inquiry. “Dr. Gingerich is widely acclaimed as both a scientist and historian of science, and his lectures at Gordon promise to generate thought and discussion about matters of first-order significance.”

Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He has been vice president of the American Philosophical Society (America's oldest scientific academy) and he has served as chairman of the U.S. National Committee of the International Astronomical Union. He has been a councilor of the American Astronomical Society and helped organize its Historical Astronomy Division.

In 1999 Dr. Gingerich delivered an Advent sermon at the National Cathedral. Harvard University Press has published as God's Universe the 2005 William Belden Noble Lectures he delivered at Harvard’s Memorial Church. At Harvard he taught “The Astronomical Perspective,” a core science course for non-scientists, which at the time of his retirement in 2000 was “the longest-running course under the same management” at Harvard. Two anthologies of his essays have appeared, The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History from Cambridge University Press, and The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler.

Gordon College has partnered with the John Templeton Foundation to honor the pioneering work of Dr. Robert Herrmann, who throughout his distinguished career addressed the “Big Questions” constellated around the theme of science and religion.

This lecture series is sponsored by the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College and made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. For information, visit the Center for Faith and Inquiry website or contact Ryan Groff at [email protected].

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Gordon College is one of the nation's premier Christian colleges and located just north of Boston. We offer students extraordinary access to leading-edge opportunities for intellectual, professional, and leadership development to address the increasingly complex challenges of a global society. Gordon stands apart from other outstanding institutions in New England by combining an exceptional education with an informed Christian faith.

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