Special Birthday honoree
Celebrating his 85th birthday, having been born in Beijing, Professor Ian Barbour will make remarks summarizing the important aspects of his vision and make an appeal for dialog, and for a broad vision for learning that spans the range of sciences, technology, history, ethics, philosophy and the study of culture. Professor Barbour was born on October 5th, 1923. He obtained a PHD in nuclear physics in 1950 at the University of Chicago, where he starting research in 1946 (and worked with the Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi) immediately following the Manhattan Project. This project created the initial nuclear weapons technology for the USA in World War II. Involvement in this huge expansion of destructive power caused Ian Barbour to seek an unusual second PHD in theology and ethics. This was obtained from Yale University in 1956. As a physicist-theologian-ethicist, and through his life experience and influential scholarship, Professor Barbour very well engages the “big question” set for out event: “What direction and challenges for the future of Science?” His writings are important contributions to intellectual life in the United States and elsewhere. Especially, he has contributed to the study of the ethical challenges of scientific civilizations through his thoughtful reflections on science and technology in a broader human context published in his two-volume work delivered via the distinguished Gifford Lectures series in Scotland: Religion in an Age of Science (1990), and Ethics in an Age of Technology (1992).