Meet the Experts

Althea is passionate about finding ways to gather data to answer key questions we have about the Universe. She has worked with the world’s largest radio telescope and was part of a space mission which worked out what the sky looked like at the very beginning of the universe. She became a Christian after studying science for many years and now she also loves helping people to think about different types of big questions like “Why are we here?” and “How might astrophysics shape how we see ourselves?”

You can listen to her talking more about her science and her faith, in this 27-minute interview.

Andrew loves science and theology (the study of God and religion) so much he got a PhD in both! His studies started in the sciences before he moved into theology, and he now works with both, together!

Andrew enjoys thinking and teaching about the sorts of questions where theology, science and philosophy meet – questions like what discovering life elsewhere in the universe would mean for Christians.

April teaches biology to university students in America and also travels a lot speaking to audiences about how evolution and Christian faith can work together. When she was younger, she felt like she had to choose between God and studying biology at university. She now believes this choice isn’t necessary, and loves having conversations about science and faith.

You can watch this 3-minute video to explore more about her story of learning to combine her science and her Christian faith.

Bob has always been a curious explorer of the world he believes God made. This led him to study marine biology at university (this means studying life in the oceans), and he now works to help people look after the ocean and its creatures. Bob believes that God gave humans the responsibility to care for the world and other people, and that science can help us do that.

Explore more of his story and work, here, or in this 7-minute video.

Bob studies how volcanoes work and likes to visit them when they are erupting! He looks at the Earth’s crust and how volcanic rock is produced, and, because of his research work, he was even awarded a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society. Bob also spends his time helping people think about the responsibility he believes God has given us to look after the planet he made. Bob fully believes that science and religion have important roles to play – he helped set up The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

You can explore more about volcanoes on our ‘volcano explosion’ activity page, here.

Cara always knew she wanted to explore and protect wild animals and wild spaces, so she studied marine biology (life in the oceans) and oceanography (the physics of the ocean) in her home country, South Africa. She has been able to travel and learn about challenges in different parts of the world, including time spent as a head of marine programmes in the Maldives, working with sea turtles and coral. She is passionate about helping people take care of the world she believes God has made and loves.

You can explore more about her story and work through a range of short videos, each of which is less than 3 minutes long.

Cara did her PhD in a subject area called Biological Anthropology because she is interested in people, humanity’s early development and our closest cousins. She studied how Neanderthals (some of our closest cousins) lived and hunted and she now teaches biology to university students, helping them to think about where we come from and how we got here.

As well as being interested in exploring what makes us human from a biological perspective, Cara is also keen to draw these ideas together with other ways of knowing, including ideas about human identity and uniqueness from her Christian faith.

David has two PhD’s, which mirror his two passions, and now he spends his time exploring how the two go together! His first PhD was in theoretical astrophysics He studied star formation, galaxies changing over time, and mass extinctions on Earth, such as the event which wiped out most of the dinosaurs. He then studied theology (the study of religion) and has served in several different churches as well as teaching about theology.

David likes to explore questions about how Christian theology relates to modern culture, including science. He teaches, speaks and writes a lot about this and other subjects. You might also hear his voice coming out of your radio as he is a regular contributor to BBC Thought for the Day.

You can hear a little more about what he thinks about science and religion through a range of short videos, each of which is less than 4 minutes long.

Deborah studied physics and music at university. She was passionate about studying the physics of the Universe she believes God made, so she entered university really excited to ‘see how she could love God with her mind, as well as her heart and soul.’

Through this journey she became interested in astrophysics, and she has now spent many years studying and teaching about physics and astronomy. She has studied far away galaxies and explored the expansion of the universe.

Her faith has always been really important to her and, as someone interested in a universe which is billions of years old, she has also been on a journey of thinking about how we bring together ideas from religion and science. She is ​now President of BioLogos, an organisation which helps people think about how science and Christian faith go together. She loves to think and teach about how both science and faith can help us understand the universe and our place in it.

“We are free to explore the universe with joyful curiosity, relying on God’s faithfulness, discovering all the wonderful ‘how’ and ‘when’ of creation, about which scripture tells us ‘who’ and ‘why’.”

You can read more about her story, here, or listen to her speaking about wonder in this 2-minute video, and about how her science and Christian faith feed into questions about human significance in this 2-minute video.

Denis has spent many years researching the brain, genes (parts of our DNA) which cause diseases, and the ways in which our bodies defend themselves.

His faith is very important to him and ties into everything he does. He spent 15 years in the middle east teaching science and helping people in the church. He helped to set up The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, and loves to help people think about how science and faith can work together to help us explore some of our biggest questions. Often our big questions are about our origins, so he has used his knowledge to explore what science and the Bible say about human identity.

You can explore more about what Denis says about science and religion through a range of short videos, each of which is less than 3 minutes long.

Elaine studies and teaches about how people think and interact with each other. She is particularly interested in exploring what scientists think about religion and has travelled all over the world to ask them. She has found out that it’s much more common for scientists to believe in God than lots of people think, and she loves to help other people think about how science and religious faith interact.

You can watch this 4-minute video to explore more about her work.

Eric loves ‘playing with equations’ every day. In his research work, he uses maths to explore how parts of the universe work, especially the Sun. He is very interested in the links between science and faith. As a Christian and a scientist, he believes the tools of science can help us worship God as we uncover some of the beautiful mysteries of the Universe, and he enjoys helping people to think about how both science and faith can help us understand the universe and our place in it.

You can hear him speaking a bit about his science and faith, in this 3-minute video for the BBC.

Ernest worked as a research biochemist for some years before studying theology. He has spent many years teaching people about the Bible and how we can explore what it says. He enjoys helping people think about how to put together what we learn from the Bible with modern ideas, such as those we get from science.

Ernest often teaches, talks and writes about what Christianity and science each seem to say about the origins of the Universe, of life and of humans. He has spent a lot of time studying the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and thinking about how we can best understand it in the 21^st century.

You can hear him talking a bit more about Genesis and evolution in this 6-minute video clip, filmed when he visited The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in 2008.

Galileo had a strong influence on the beginnings of modern physics and the scientific method. He studied all kinds of things including speed, gravity, and the principle of relativity. He invented and developed scientific instruments and used his developments to the telescope to find out more about our solar system.

Galileo is well known for supporting the idea that the earth moved around the sun, rather than the other way around. There were lots of groups of scientists and others who disagreed with him, as is often the case with new ideas and discoveries. Some Christians weren’t sure what to think about these ideas at the time as it meant some people had to rethink how they believed God had set up the solar system.

Galileo eventually got himself into trouble and was arrested by the Catholic church by offending the Pope at a time when the Church was already full of disagreement and uncertainty. Since his death, the Catholic church have officially stated that Galileo shouldn’t have been treated as he was. Even when he was under arrest, Galileo kept writing about how important both his science and faith were to him.

You can listen to historian Peter Harrison talk about Galileo’s work, in this 4-minute video, and his ideas about science and faith in this 2-minute video.

Gillian studied the physics of Australian storm cloud systems and loves science, which she says is one of the wonderful ways we can study God’s world. She also studied theology (the study of God and religion) and is fascinated by how science and faith both inform the way we think about life. Gillian has had times in her life when she has been ill, and she uses this experience to help her lead a health and faith charity, and she loves helping people to think about how science, faith and health connect together.

Explore her story and work via her website, https://linktr.ee/gillianstraine.

Hannah has been a Christian for most of their life and feels this faith is deeply tied to their love for science and exploring the Universe they believe God created. There is a particular part of that Universe Hannah feels passionate about exploring… Mars! In 2013 Hannah joined the list of 100 people signed up for a one-way mission to start a human colony on Mars.

While this mission (Mars One) is officially over, Hannah is still excited by the ideas and conversations which come up when we think about space travel and humans on Mars. As well as the science, Hannah is interested in the questions that missions like this raise which go beyond science – questions about how we create ‘good’ communities, how we think about caring for the planets we come into contact with (Earth or Mars), and what ‘taking religion into space’ might look like.

As part of an answer explaining their motivations for applying to Mars One, Hannah wrote:

“… Finally, as a Christian, I have a deep love for all creation. Mars is as much God’s work as Earth is, and I know that my faith gives me a deep respect for it, as well as a firm emotional grounding for a life-long dedication.”*

You can read more about Hannah, and their ideas about Mars colonisation, in a 2015 article, here.

When they are not thinking about moving to Mars, Hannah works as an X-ray astronomer, studying some of the hottest, brightest, and most mysterious things in the Universe – black holes, neutron stars, and supernova explosions.

*Quote source: In Search of a Martian Faith (2018) An article by Hannah Earnshaw, published by The Mars Society.

Hannah is passionate about learning more about the Universe – and sharing that passion with others. She studied physics and astronomy at University, and has mapped asteroid collisions, studied galaxies and even worked on the Mars Rover Curiosity.

Now a teacher, Hannah loves sharing her experiences and her passion for exploring the universe she believes God made. She continues to lead stargazing programs to introduce people to Wyoming’s extraordinary night skies – and the wonders beyond.

You can find out more about her story on her website, here.

James worked with electromagnetic radiation and showed, for the first time, how electricity, magnetism, and light are connected. He is also thought of as a founder of the modern field of electrical engineering. In a survey of the 100 most prominent physicists, he was voted the third greatest physicist of all time, behind only Newton and Einstein. James was an Elder of the Church of Scotland. He said that his faith often inspired his passion for science, and prayed that God would ‘teach us to study the works of Thy hands’. He thought, and wrote a lot, about how faith and science could work together.

You can explore more about his work in this 3-minute video.

Kepler is known as a key figure in the development of modern science. He’s best known for his work in thinking about how planets move, and for some of his writings, which went on to inspire many people including Newton (and inspiring Newton’s work on gravity). Kepler developed a new version of the telescope, taught maths to people training in the church, and became the official mathematician to a number of emperors and military leaders.

Kepler’s faith was very important to him and he wrote a lot about the interactions of faith and science. His science was inspired by his belief that God had created the world in a way which could be understood through exploration and reason.

In 1595, Kepler wrote letters to another professor of mathematics. One of his letters said: “I had the intention of becoming a theologian. But now I see how God is, by my endeavours, also glorified in astronomy, for “The Heavens declare the Glory of God”.

You can explore more about his work, and ‘Kepler’s Laws’ via this 7-minute NASA video, or explore the wider story of his life and work in this 24-minute video – Johannes Kepler: God’s Mathematician.

John spent many years researching, and teaching others about, genes and DNA (the chemical instructions inside us which help our bodies grow and function in a special, unique way).

His work in science led him to think, and teach about, ethics (thinking about what is right and what is wrong) in science, medicine and in our relationship with the natural world.

John loves to help people think about how all the things we can learn from science and the Bible can help people explore and understand ourselves and the world around us.

You can explore more about John’s ideas about science and faith through a range of short videos, each of which is less than 3 minutes long.

John Polkinghorne used physics and maths to explore some of the deepest levels of our physical universe. He changed from teaching physics to study to become a priest in the Anglican church and had a huge influence in the growing field of science and religion. He taught and wrote lots about the interactions of science and religion.

John loved to help people think about how both science and faith can help us to explore life’s big questions, and thought that “the question of the existence of God is the single most important question we face about the nature of reality”.*

You can explore more about what John thought about science and faith through a range of short videos, each of which is less than 4 minutes long.

* Polkinghorne (1994) The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker.

John grew up in a Christian family who helped him love exploring the Bible. While he was at University, he felt that he wanted to find out more about the Old Testament – the words used, and the culture of the ancient Near East, in which it was written. So he changed his degree and signed up for Old Testament Biblical studies. Many years later, John still loves exploring the Old Testament and sharing that passion with others.

John’s research has focused on Genesis (the first book of the Old Testament), particularly the parts which talk about God as the Creator of everything. He believes that we can get a better idea of what the text means by understanding more about who wrote it, and who they wrote it for. By imagining himself in the world of ancient Israelites, he is able to uncover deeper layers of meaning in the text. This approach helps him see the kinds of questions that Genesis is exploring. John thinks that these are quite different types of questions to those that science asks today, which can help us understand the harmony between science and biblical faith.

You can explore more about John’s work by listening to him talk about science and scripture in this 1-minute video, or about how to best understand the creation narratives in context in this 1-minute video or this 7-minute video.

Jonathan’s passions for the world he believes God made means he was driven to study both theology (the study of God and religion) and wildlife ecology (which means studying organisms and how they interact with the environment around them). As a Christian he likes to write and teach about the Bible and the natural world. As part of his teaching, he likes to take students into the wild landscapes around them in the USA, where they can explore the beauty of the mountains and start to think more deeply about relationships between religious faith, science and ecology. He loves to help other people study and explore the world around us and the teachings in the Bible – and sees these both as ways we can worship God.

Explore more about Jonathan’s life and passions, by watching this 2-minute video, or reading an interview, here.

Mary was a Christian woman born in Dorset, in an area now called the ‘Jurassic Coast’. She was a fossil collector before people even knew what fossils were. When she was 12, her brother found a strange, fossilised skull and Mary worked hard to search for the rest of the 5.2-metre-long skeleton of an extinct marine reptile (ichthyosaur). Over time, her efforts continued to uncover fossil after fossil. She was the first to discover a complete plesiosaur (another extinct marine reptile) and she uncovered Britain’s first pterodactylus (a flying reptile). You can visit her amazing finds at the Natural History Museum in London.

Members of the Geological Society of London paid for a stained glass window to be built in Mary Anning’s local parish church, in her honour.

You can explore her story through this 5-minute video or this 1-minute video.

Faraday’s faith shaped the way he thought about science as well as other aspects of his life. He firmly believed that God had created everything according to ‘laws’ which could be explored and discovered through science. Some people thought that the Bible could teach us about science, but Faraday disagreed with this idea. Along with many others throughout history, he thought that science was a gift from God, to help us understand ‘the book of God’s world’ and would not, therefore, disagree with the Bible (‘the book of God’s word’) which was meant to tell us different things about God.

This way of viewing the world motivated Faraday’s scientific work. He had almost no formal education, but, while doing an apprenticeship with a bookseller, he read every book on science in the bookshop and went to as many public lectures as he could. His important work included inventing the concepts of magnetic and electric field lines, the first electrical generator, and improving understanding of the laws of electrochemistry, light and magnetism.

You can read more about his story, and work, here.

Boyle was known as a natural philosopher (the name given to people who studied the natural world using philosophy and scientific ideas before modern science was developed). Many people think of him as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of the modern experimental scientific method.

Boyle studied and wrote a lot about theology (the study of God and religion) and how science might help us think about God. He also supported those who were translating the Bible into various languages to be available all over the world.

Rodney moved from studying maths, to cosmology and astrophysics, then to theology (the study of God and religion), before completing his training to become a minister. He is very passionate about both science and faith, and has spent a large part of his life exploring, talking and writing about the ways in which they overlap.

Rodney believes that science and Christian faith can work well together in these areas of overlap, if we remember what each is for, and the slightly different types of questions they answer. He believes the Bible tells us about God the Creator, and the gift of science can help us think about how it all works.

As an astrophysicist, Rodney has spent a lot of time thinking about the start of our universe And he celebrates the wonders that science helps us to uncover about the Big Bang. Rodney believes that God is the reason anything is here at all, so understanding how physical systems (like the Big Bang) work can only help us marvel at God who is the creator of it all.

Roger studies big events like earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes and pandemics, and how people respond to them when they impact their lives. He has talked to people recovering from catastrophic events in Haiti, New Orleans, the Philippines and here in the UK – listening to stories of fear, anger, hope and trust. His Christian faith drives him to want to help people who are suffering, and his faith and research work help him to think about how we can prevent these events from becoming disasters in the future.

You can read more about Roger’s work, here. Younger readers (aged 7 and upwards) can find his thoughts about the question ‘If God is really in control why are there so many natural disasters?’ in the book: “101 Big Questions about Science and God“.

Roger uses science to explore how people’s minds work and how the things that we think can make us better people. He asks questions like, ‘Does being thankful make us happier?’; ‘How can we make wise choices?’ and ‘Are humble leaders better leaders?’. Roger enjoys exploring how these parts of who we are relate to the ideas we have about God, faith and religion.

Meet Roger as he answers 20 questions about his work and life in 4 minutes, here!

Ruth has always loved finding out how things worked. Growing up in Scotland with her parents who were both Christians who studied the sciences, she was encouraged to explore and ask questions about both science and religion. Ruth spent several years, studying how eyes develop in baby zebrafish, which can help us understand more about how all kinds of animals (including humans) develop. But, although she really enjoyed this, she felt called to step out of the lab and do something different.

Ruth had always believed that science and faith could go hand-in-hand, but her time in the lab taught her just how positive the relationship between science and faith could be, and she wanted to share what she had learned.

She now works at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion – writing books, giving talks and creating positive science-faith conversations in churches. She hopes to encourage people, particularly other Christians, to explore how love for God goes with a love of science.

You can hear Ruth chatting about science and faith in this collection of videos, each under 2 minutes-long, and answering people’s questions in this 6-minute video.

Stephen likes to research things which make him feel excited and curious, so he has explored all sorts of different subjects. He studied zoology, before doing a masters in computer science, then a PhD in genetics, and now works in an area which pulls together different subjects and ways of knowing. Astrobiology is all about understanding life in the physical universe – its origins, where we find it, and its future – so it involves many, many different subjects!

As well as enjoying bringing different types of scientists together, Stephen also feels that positive conversations can happen when we share ideas, questions and knowledge between the sciences and religious faith.

Stephen’s father was a biology teacher before becoming a Methodist Minister, so he was always encouraged to explore faith and science, and never felt them working against one another. Stephen believes that, for people of faith, science can be a gift which helps them find out more about themselves, their relationships with the rest of nature, and with God.

You can hear Stephen chatting about his science and faith in this collection of short videos (each under 4 minutes long), or read about it, here.

Since he was a toddler, Tom loved exploring the world, looking at anything he could find under the microscope bought for him by his Grandmother (who studied plants and was also a preacher in a church). He grew up with both science and religion being important to him and his family, and he felt passionate about helping people build bridges between different ways of exploring the world and our big questions.

Tom loved to explore how our physical world works, especially how molecules behaved in different conditions when weird things seemed to happen – like in slimes, foams, and when you mix oil and water. He made discoveries which changed the way scientists think about all kinds of different substances, and never stopped encouraging people to ask big questions.

Tom enjoyed bringing engineers, biologists and physicists together to tackle questions about the physics of life. He also loved bringing the study of science together with philosophy and religious faith.

Tom believed that the Bible gives us wisdom to help us live well under God, so we can tackle real issues and use our knowledge, including science, to love people, and God’s creation, well.

You can listen to Tom talk about ‘The Wise Scientist’ in this 6-minute video, and answer peoples’ questions in this 10-minute video clip.