Dr. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., Ph.D.

Dr. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., is Director of the Vatican Observatory, a leading astronomer and meteoriticist, and a Jesuit brother. He earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. Before entering the Jesuits in 1989, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps, and taught university physics at Lafayette College. He has worked as a Vatican Observatory astronomer since 1993.

Br. Consolmagno’s research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. The author of a monthly science column for The Tablet, he has written more than 200 scientific publications and a number of popular books, including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), and Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? (with Paul Mueller). He has also hosted science programs for BBC Radio 4, appeared in numerous documentary films, and served as chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. In 2000, the small bodies nomenclature committee of the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid, 4597 Consolmagno, in recognition of his work. In 2014, he was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal for public outreach by the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences.

Praise for Guy Consolmagno

“Br. Guy Consolmagno is a gifted scientist, writer, and leader in helping people bridge their scientific and religious understandings of the cosmos. An engaging and entertaining speaker, Br. Guy has a rare talent for communicating abstract concepts to public audiences with remarkable clarity.”
– Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase, Astronomer, Adler Planetarium

“Guy Consolmagno’s presentations are gems. Here is an accomplished scientist with strong interests in science’s history and in communicating science to a diverse public audience — he communicates skillfully to science enthusiasts but also humbly to those who have religious or cultural apprehensions regarding science.”
– Prof. Christopher M. Graney, Author of Setting Aside All Authority: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the Science against Copernicus in the Age of Galileo

“Br. Guy puts the lie to the post-modern canard that science is the replacement for religion, that one must choose between one’s profession and one’s faith. He does this with humor, wisdom, and deep knowledge.”
– Jonathan Lunine, David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences, Cornell University

“Brother Guy Consolmagno combines an active research career in planetary astronomy with a strong sense of history. He also inspires amateur astronomers the world over, and instructs a wide audience of armchair astronomers through his accessible popular books. He is a voice of authority and a source of enthusiasm for science.”
— Dava Sobel, Author of Galileo’s Daughter