Marianist Lecture

Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ is the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. 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, his research has explored connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies, observing Kuiper Belt objects with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and applying his measure of meteorite physical properties to understanding 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 Extraterrestial? (with Paul Mueller). He also has hosted science programs for BBC Radio 4, been interviewed in numerous documentary films, appeared on The Colbert Report, and for twenty years he has written a monthly science column for the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet.

Dr. Consolmagno’s work has taken him to every continent on Earth; in 1996 he spent six weeks collecting meteorites with a NASA team on the blue ice regions of East Antarctica. He has served on the governing boards of the Meteoritical Society (where he is currently vice president); the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences (of which he was chair in 2006-2007); and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). He serves as the chair of the Mars Task Group on the IAU’s Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature. In 2000, the small bodies nomenclature committee of the IAU named an 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.

In 2015, Pope Francis appointed Dr. Consolmagno as director of the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory). As such he serves as an ex-officio member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ is the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. His research has explored connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He is the author of several popular books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), and Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? (with Paul Mueller). He appeared on The Colbert Report, and writes a science column for the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet.

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, his research has explored connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies, observing Kuiper Belt objects with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and applying his measure of meteorite physical properties to understanding 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 Extraterrestial? (with Paul Mueller). He also has hosted science programs for BBC Radio 4, been interviewed in numerous documentary films, appeared on The Colbert Report, and for twenty years he has written a monthly science column for the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet.

Dr. Consolmagno’s work has taken him to every continent on Earth; in 1996 he spent six weeks collecting meteorites with a NASA team on the blue ice regions of East Antarctica. He has served on the governing boards of the Meteoritical Society (where he is currently vice president); the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences (of which he was chair in 2006-2007); and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). He serves as the chair of the Mars Task Group on the IAU’s Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature. In 2000, the small bodies nomenclature committee of the IAU named an 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.

In 2015, Pope Francis appointed Dr. Consolmagno as director of the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory). As such he serves as an ex-officio member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.