At Woods Lab Room 216 All are welcome.

Arnold Benz is an internationally renowned astrophysicist who has long served as professor and research group leader at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. With the benefit of his expertise in plasma astrophysics and radio astronomy, he has played significant roles in space research projects conducted both by NASA and by the European Space Agency. The latest such project involves his investigation of star, planetary, and galactic formation in the early universe, an intriguing research program pursued through the apparatus of ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory. Launched last year, Herschel is the largest telescope mirror ever sent into space.

Beyond his work as a research scientist and instructor, Benz has gained distinction for his reflections on the interplay between scientific inquiry and religious experience. The fruits of this inquiry can be seen in his three books on cosmological and spiritual themes. The first, published in English as The Future of the Universe: Chance, Chaos, God?, has been translated from its original German into nine different languages and has won praise from theologians such as Wolfhart Pannenberg and John Polkinghorne, as well as from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Werner Arber. Benz’s latest science-and-religion book, published last year, is currently being translated for English-language publication by Sewanee professor Martin Knoll.

Benz is the author of two textbooks and more than 300 research publications, including articles that have appeared in periodicals such as Nature, Science, and The Astrophysical Journal.

A past president of the Committee of European Solar Radio Astronomers, Benz has twice been designated principal scientific organizer for the Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union and has filled other leadership posts within the international scientific community. Throughout Europe, he has also explained astronomical matters to general audiences through the many presentations he has made on television and radio programs, as well as through newspaper features, magazine articles, and personal appearances.

His appearances at the University of the South are supported by the University Lectures Committee together with the Dean of the College, the Department of Physics, and the School of Theology.