Language of God

As she recounts her life in science, astronomer Jennifer Wiseman discusses faith in her work, human significance in a vast universe, and the mysterious awe inspired by investigating the cosmos. Spanning her life from gazing at the night sky as a child in the Ozark mountains to searching for life outside our galaxy as an astronomer, Wiseman’s passionate work in science and Christian faith have been the warp and woof of her life story.

Jennifer J. Wiseman is an astrophysicist, author, and speaker. She studies the formation of stars and planets in our galaxy using radio, infrared, and optical telescopes. Dr. Wiseman studied physics for her bachelor’s degree at MIT, discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987. After earning her Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1995, she continued her research as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Dr. Wiseman also has an interest in national science policy and has served as an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow on Capitol Hill. Dr. Wiseman enjoys giving talks on the excitement of science and astronomy to schools, youth and church groups, and civic organizations. She is a former Councilor of the American Astronomical Society and a former President of the American Scientific Affiliation.

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From Praveen’s childhood, growing up in a Hindu family, to his later conversion to Christianity and his entry into science, he has gained great insight into the science and faith conversation. With grace and humility, Praveen shares some of that insight as he considers what it means to be made in the image of God in light of our understanding of evolution and DNA. He has long felt the importance of fostering healthy dialogue among Christians and the scientific community and discusses how such a dialogue might actually bring us closer together.

Praveen Sethupathy is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cornell University, where he directs a research laboratory focused on human genomics and complex diseases. Praveen received his B.A. in Computer Science from Cornell University, his Ph.D. in Genomics and Computational Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and he continued his training in genomics and gene regulation as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Francis S. Collins at the National Institutes of Health. Praveen was recently selected by Genome Technology as one of the nation’s top 25 rising young investigators in genomics. He has published nearly fifty articles in scientific journals, including Science, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Genome Biology and serves on the advisory board for AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion as well as the Board of Directors for BioLogos.

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Dr. Francis Collins is a physician and geneticist known for spearheading the Human Genome Project and for his landmark discoveries of disease genes. Collins founded the BioLogos Foundation in November 2007 and served as its president until August 16, 2009, when he resigned to become director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins sat down with us at his home to talk about his own journey in finding a harmony between faith and science. He talks about the early part of his career studying medicine and leading the Human Genome Project, shares stories of some of the people in his life who were influential in his conversion from atheism to Christianity, and discusses the role that music has played in his life.

Find a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

Language of God is a podcast on science and Christian faith from BioLogos.

For more information about BioLogos visit our website at biologos.org.