The Speakers and Presenters

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SPEAKERS

Stephen M. Barr is President of the Society of Catholic Scientists and Professor Emeritus of theoretical particle physics at the University of Delaware. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1978. His research has centered mainly on “grand unified theories” and the cosmology of the early universe. In 2011, he was elected to be a Fellow of the American Physical Society “for his original contributions to grand unification, CP violation, and baryogenesis”. He writes and lectures extensively on the relation of science and religion. He is the author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2003) and The Believing Scientist: essays on science and religion (Eerdmans, 2016). He was elected in 2010 to the Academy of Catholic Theology and was awarded the Benemerenti Medal by Pope Benedict XVI.

Karin I. Öberg is Professor of Astronomy and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard. Her research focuses on how chemistry affects star and planet formation and the likelihood of forming habitable planets. Recent highlights include observations of snowlines and organic molecules in Solar Nebula analogs where exoplanets are currently assembling. Dr. Öberg obtained a B.Sc. in chemistry at Caltech in 2005, and a Ph.D. in astronomy at Leiden University in 2009. She received a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009 and joined the Harvard faculty in 2013. At Harvard, her research in astrochemistry has been recognized with a Sloan fellowship, a Packard Fellowship and the Newton Lacy Pierce Award. Dr. Öberg is a Director of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Maureen Condic is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Utah, with an adjunct appointment in Pediatrics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the role of stem cells in development and regeneration and has been recognized by both the Basil O'Connor and the McKnight awards. She is currently a member of Pontifical Academy for Life, and in 2018, was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Science Board. Dr. Condic is co-author with her brother Samuel of Human Embryos, Human Beings (CUA Press, 2018), which explores the nature of the human embryo from a scientific and philosophical perspective, and the author of Untangling Twinning (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2020), considers the biological and philosophical issues raised by human twinning. Dr. Condic participates in both graduate and medical education, having taught Human Embryology in the Medical School for 20 years. She has a strong commitment to public education, and has presented over 250 seminars and interviews, both nationally and internationally, on science policy, bioethics and her own research. Dr. Condic is a Director of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Cory Hayes is a professor of Philosophy and Theology at St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, Louisiana. He holds a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He has lectured widely for the Science and Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life of the University of Notre Dame. Prof. Hayes’s research and teaching interests include Byzantine and Eastern Christian theology, Philosophy of Nature, and the relation between Catholic theology, philosophy, and empirical science. He a member of the Theological Advisory Committee of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Stephen Patrick Joly, O.P., Ph.D., is a perpetually professed member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. She earned her Ph.D. in Cell and Microbial Biology from The Catholic University of America in 2018. Her dissertation was titled “Identification of SUP5: A Protein that Interfaces with the Deviant ATP-Binding Site of the Yeast Pdr5 Multidrug Transporter.” Sr. Stephen Patrick is currently a high school science teacher at Lansing Catholic High School and has taught Honors and General Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, AP Biology, Physical Science, and Meteorology & Astronomy. She is a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Peter Dodson is professor of veterinary gross anatomy and dinosaur paleontology at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Yale University (1974). He also holds a B.Sc. (geology) from the University of Ottawa and an M.Sc. from the University of Alberta. He has taught for 47 years at University of Pennsylvania. He has participated in many field projects in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Madagascar, Egypt, Argentina, India and China. With his students he has named seven genera (kinds) of dinosaurs: three from the United States, three from China and one from Egypt. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, co-editor of The Dinosauria, (1990; 2004); author of The Horned Dinosaurs (1996); and of several children’s books, including An Alphabet of Dinosaurs (1996). He is a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Natasha Toghramadjian is a fourth-year PhD student at Harvard University studying geophysics, with a focus on earthquakes and strong ground motion predictions. Funded by a U.S. Fulbright Research Grant, she spent 10 months in Armenia as a geophysical researcher on the NSF-funded, Caucasus-wide “Transect Project,” designing a collaborative statistical seismology study on reservoir-triggered earthquakes and aiding in the deployment of 100+ new seismic stations and analysis of incoming seismic data for tomographic modeling of the Caucasus’ crustal and mantle structure. She has done several field studies in the Seattle area. Her research is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Harvard Ashford Fellowship. She is a student member of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

The PRESENTERS at the BIG QUESTIONS/ASK-A-SCIENTIST SESSION

Stephen M. Barr (University of Delaware): Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology

Marco Colombini (University of Maryland): Biochemistry and Biophysics

Peter Dodson (University of Pennsylvania): Paleontology and Anatomy

Timothy Dolch (Hillsdale College): Astrophysics

Sr. Stephen Patrick Joly (Lansing Catholic High School): Cell and Microbial Biology

Mariel Ortega (Texas A&M University): Wildlife Ecology, Avian Behavior an Conservation

Christopher Raub (Catholic University of America): Biomedical Engineering

Kariana Rios (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences): Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Robert Sabo (Environmental Protection Agency): Environmental Science

Chris Stoughton (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory): Experimental Particle Physics and Cosmology

Natasha Toghramadjian (Harvard University): Seismology and Geophysics

Cara Westmark (University of Wisconsin): Neuroscience