Prof. Raj Roy speaking at “Hard Questions: Science, Religion, and Ethics” discussion group
Monday, Sept. 28th at 8:30 pm (tonight!!) Hard Questions is a weekly discussion group co-sponsored by the Chapel and EthIC. We’re excited to welcome Raj tonight to speak on the topic “Faith in Science: Searching for Answers in Uncertain Times — a Matter of Life and Death.” It would be great to see some physics folks there — all are welcome! Contact Amelia Broman with questions.m Join via Zoom.
Faith in Science: Searching for Answers in Uncertain Times
A matter of life and death
The world is a much smaller place today than it was a few hundred years ago. The past century was tumultuous, with two world wars and huge changes in the power structures and ideologies of nations that influenced peoples’ lives everywhere. All these changes have been greatly influenced by the rapid development of modern science and technology.
Today, people of different faiths and cultures rub shoulders with each other more frequently than ever before, both virtually and literally. How do we navigate this rapidly changing landscape? The way we approach the world and people of other faiths with whom we work and live depends on the reference frames that we develop through our education, life experiences and surroundings. Where, or to whom, do we turn for guidance in these uncertain times?
Speaker Biosketch: Rajarshi Roy was born in India, and received his undergraduate education at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. After receiving a PhD from the University of Rochester under the guidance of Leonard Mandel, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in Boulder, Colorado. He became a faculty member of the School of Physics at Georgia Tech in 1982, and served as chair of the school from 1996 – 1999. During this time, his research interests included optics, nonlinear dynamics, synchronization and complex systems. He then moved to the University of Maryland in College Park, where he served as director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology for eleven years, and is a professor of physics. He has guided over three dozen PhD students and worked with over twenty postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty. Recent research interests include neuroscience, network dynamics and machine learning, as well as random number generation using light. He has collaborated with scientists at NIH – and developed and presented a semester-long HONR seminar titled Faith in Science at UMD for many years where he learned much from students and guest speakers about their faith backgrounds and professions. He hopes to do the same (learn as much as possible) during his stay at Carleton this fall, when he will be developing a new course on Nonlinear Optoelectronic Dynamics (PHYS311) for juniors and seniors.