A Touch of Awe:
Crafting Meaning from the Wonder of the Cosmos

Massimo Pigliucci is a Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York-Lehman College. His research is concerned with philosophy of science, the relationship between science and philosophy, and the relationship between science and religion. He received a Doctorate in Genetics from the University of Ferrara in Italy, a PhD in Botany from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in Philosophy from the .... Read More

Melanie Chang is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Portland State University. Dr. Chang completed a dual PhD in physical anthropology and ecology/evolutionary biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, and a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral genetics at UCSF in 2008. Her primary interests include the systematics and phylogeny of Middle Pleistocene Homo, particularly the.... Read More

Ian Tattersall is Curator Emeritus of Human Origins, Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, and Professor Emeritus, Richard Gilder Graduate School. Dr. Tattersall has concentrated his research over the past quarter-century on the analysis of the human fossil record and the study of the ecology and systematics of the lemurs of Madagascar, and.... Read More

Paul Davies is an internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, where he runs the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He also chairs the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-Detection Taskgroup, so that if SETI succeeds in finding intelligent life, he will be among the first to know. The asteroid 1992OG.... Read More

Jay Lombard is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Genomind, and is in private practice as the Clinical Director of Neuroscience at LifeSpan Medicine. Previously, Dr. Lombard was Chief of Neurology at both Westchester Square Medical Center and Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and was a clinical assistant professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.... Read More

Emily Esfahani Smith is an instructor in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a columnist for The New Criterion, as well as an editor at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where she manages the Ben Franklin Circles project: a collaboration with the 92nd Street Y and Citizen University to build meaning in local communities. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Smith grew up in Montreal.... Read More

Michael Ruse is the Lucyle T. Wekmeister Professor and Director of the History and Philosophy of Science Program at Florida State University. Before coming to Florida State in 2000, Michael taught at the University of Guelph for 35 years. He received his B.A. from the University of Bristol in 1962, his M.A. from McMaster University in 1964, and his PhD from the University of Bristol in 1970. He is a Fellow of both.... Read More

Simon Conway Morris is professor of evolutionary palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Morris received his PhD in 1976 from the University of Cambridge. In 1979 he was appointed lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at Open University. Four years later Dr Morris was appointed lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Cambridge.... Read More

Lucianne Walkowicz is an Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. She studies stellar magnetic activity and how stars influence a planet's suitability as a host for alien life. Walkowicz holds a B.S. in Physics from Johns Hopkins University, a M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Washington. She was the Kepler Fellow at UC Berkeley, and the Henry Norris Russell Fellow at Princeton University, before.... Read More

Ard Louis is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group studying problems on the border between chemistry, physics and biology, and is also director of graduate studies in theoretical physics. From 2002 to 2010 he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He is an.... Read More