"The Pope's Astronomer" with Q&A

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Windows on the River
2000 Sycamore St.
Cleveland, OH 44113

Speaker: Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ

Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ is the Director of the Vatican Observatory. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College before entering the Jesuits in 1989. At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, in 2015 Pope Francis appointed Dr. Consolmagno director of the Vatican Observatory.

Br. Guy’s research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He has observed Kuiper Belt objects with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and measured of meteorite physical properties to understand asteroid origins and structure. Along with more than 200 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of popular books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), and Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? (with Paul Mueller). In 2000, the IAU named asteroid, 4597 Consolmagno, in recognition of his work. In 2014 he received the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences.

Program Details

11:30 a.m. – Doors Open (check in and registration)
12:00 p.m. – Lunch Begins
12:15 p.m. – Program Begins