Academic Advisors

Samuel H. Barondes, M.D.

Samuel H. Barondes, M.D., is the Jeanne and Sanford Robertson Professor and Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and President of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. He recently chaired the Workgroup on Genetics of the National Institute of Mental Health, and is the author of Scientific American Library's Molecules and Mental Illness; Mood Genes: Hunting for Origins of Mania and Depression, which The New York Times Book Review described as “unputdownable,” and Better Than Prozac: Creating the Next Generation of Psychiatric Drugs.

Terrence Deacon, Ph.D.

Terrence Deacon, Ph.D., is Professor of Biological Anthropology and Linguistics at U.C. Berkeley. Professor Deacon's research focuses on the evolution of the brain, and he is best known for his work on the evolution of human language abilities, summarized in his 1997 book The Symbolic Species. His neurobiological research has also utilized cross–species transplantation of embryonic brain tissue to study the evolution and development of brains. He is currently completing a new book, Homunculus, about evolution and consciousness.

Merlin Donald, Ph.D.

Merlin Donald, Ph.D., is founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve. His research interests have centered mostly on neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience, including the neural basis of consciousness and selective attention, hominid brain evolution, and the effects of cultural and technological change on human cognition. He is the author of Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition, and A Mind so Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness.

Anne Foerst, M.Div., Ph.D.

Anne Foerst, M.Div., Ph.D., is professor of Theology and Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University, and Director of NEXUS: The Religion & Science Dialogue Project. Previously, she was a research scientist at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab, where she served as the theological adviser for the Cog and Kismet Projects, two attempts to develop social robots that learn like human infantss. She also initiated and directs "God and Computers", a dialogue project initially between Harvard Divinity School, the Boston Theological Institute and MIT, now to be continued at St. Bonaventure.

Kenneth Gergen, Ph.D.

Kenneth Gergen, Ph.D., is Gil and Frank Mustin Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He is a major contributor to theory and research in social construction, and his writings treat a wide range of topics, including postmodernism, organizational process, education, technology, and the self. Gergen is an associate editor of the American Psychologist and Theory and Psychology, as well as a co-founder of The Taos Institute. Among his most important works are Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge, The Saturated Self, and An Invitation to Social Construction. His most recent book is Social Construction in Context, published in 2001.

Ursula Goodenough, Ph.D.

Ursula Goodenough, Ph.D., is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Her research has focused on the cell biology and (molecular) genetics of the sexual phase of the life cycle of the unicellular eukaryotic green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and, more recently, on the evolution of the genes governing mating-related traits. She wrote 3 editions of a widely adopted textbook, Genetics, and has served in numerous capacities in national biomedical arenas. Dr. Goodenough joined the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in 1989 and served continuously on its Council and as its president for 4 years. Her latest book is The Sacred Depths of Nature.

Gordon Kane, Ph.D.

Gordon Kane, Ph.D., Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, and director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, is an internationally recognized expert on particle physics, particle accelerators and supersymmetry. He is a popular public lecturer and the author of Supersymmetry: Unveiling the Ultimate Laws of Nature, and The Particle Garden, a primer on particle physics for lay readers.

Everett Mendelsohn, Ph.D.

Everett Mendelsohn, Ph.D., is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, where he has been on the faculty since 1960. He has worked extensively on the history of the life sciences as well as on aspects of the social and sociological history of science and the relations of science and modern societies. He is the founder and former editor of the Journal of the History of Biology and a founder of the yearbook Sociology of the Sciences. He serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Social Science and Medicine, Social Epistemology, Social Studies of Science, and Fundamenta Scientiae, among others.

Jim Miller, Ph.D.

Jim Miller, Ph.D., is the senior program associate for the AAAS Program of Dialogue Between Science and Religion. His research is in the area of the historical and epistemological relationships between science and religion. He is the co-editor of The Church and Contemporary Cosmology (1990), editor of An Evolving Dialogue: Scientific, Historical Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Evolution (1998), and editor of Cosmic Questions (2001). [John: should you take out the dates after these pubs, since you don't have them for the other people?]

Holmes Rolston, III, Ph.D.

Holmes Rolston, III, Ph.D., is University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University, and winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize. He is the author of a number of books including Philosophy Gone Wild; Environmental Ethics; Conserving Natural Value; and Genes, Genesis and God: Values and Their Origins in Natural and Human History. He is the author of some 70 articles on the deeper values of wild species and naturally evolved ecosystems. His books have been used as texts in 150 colleges and universities.

Michael Ruse, Ph.D

Michael Ruse, Ph.D., is Professor of the Philosophy of Biology and Ethics at Florida State University. He is the founding editor of Biology and Philosophy and on the editorial boards of nine other refereed journals. He is also the editor of the Philosophy and Biology series for Cambridge University Press. Among his many books are Darwin and Design and The Evolution-Creation Struggle (published in 2005). [JR: Need pub year?]

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D.

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D., is a founder and coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, a committee member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Program, and Vice President of the American Teilhard Association. Until 2005 she was a professor of religion at Bucknell University where she taught courses in Asian religions and Religion and Ecology. She is currently a Research Associate at the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Reischauer Institute at Harvard. She and her husband, John Grim, directed the Religions of the World and Ecology conference series (1996–1998) at the Harvard Divinity School Center for the Study of World Religions.

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