Events
Cosmology, Space, and God
A Conversation between Dr. Karin Öberg (Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University) and Dr. Peter Kilpatrick (President of the Catholic University of America)
When:
April 9, 2024 | 6:00 PM EDT
Location:
Vincent P Walter Board Room
Chapter:
The Catholic University of America
This lecture is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required.
About the speaker:
Professor Öberg obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Caltech and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Leiden. She has taught at Harvard since 2013, where she is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences. Her scholarship aims to uncover how chemical processes impact the outcome of planet formation, with special attention to the possible habitability of nascent planets. She has published over 250 refereed articles, including in Nature and Science. Professor Öberg has been awarded the Barry Prize by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (2024), the Harnack Lectureship by the Max Planck Society (2022), a Simons Investigator Award (2019), the American Astronomical Society's Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (2016), a Packard Fellowship (2014), and a Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2014). She is the Vice President of the Angelicum Board, a Board Member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, a member of the American Academy of Catholic Scholars and Artists, and a frequent public speaker on questions of science and faith.
Dr. Peter K. Kilpatrick was appointed president of The Catholic University of America in March 2022 and took office on July 1, 2022.
He has been provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Illinois Institute of Technology since 2018 and previously served as professor and McCloskey Dean of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame from 2008 to 2018.
At Illinois Tech, he developed the university’s five-year strategic plan, put in place new leadership, and drove development of an online master of applied science.
During Dr. Kilpatrick’s tenure as dean at Notre Dame, the number of faculty at the College of Engineering grew by more than 60% and enrollment by nearly 70%. External research funding more than doubled to over $50 million per year. He also launched Notre Dame’s first joint Ph.D. program with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, later expanding to programs with universities in Brazil and Hungary.
Dr. Kilpatrick also served on the faculty of North Carolina State University in chemical engineering for 24 years, from 1983 to 2007, the last eight-plus years as the department head. Dr. Kilpatrick also served as the founding director of the North Carolina Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, a unique good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility that was designed to train the next generation of biopharmaceutical professionals and biotechnology industry professionals.
He is the author of more than 100 refereed journal articles in the areas of colloid and interfacial science, emulsion science, and molecular self assembly, particularly as they apply to energy and to bioseparations. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited more than 5,300 times, largely in the areas of emulsions and interfacial and colloidal phenomena. He holds or shares 12 patents and has been actively engaged in two startups.
Dr. Kilpatrick is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, including the ASEE Regional Teaching Award. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest, Hungary), the oldest university in that country. He is past chairperson of the Global Engineering Deans Council and serves as the chairperson of the Clover 2030 International Advisory Board, an initiative focused on reinventing engineering education in Chile.
He received his A.B. in chemistry from Occidental College (summa cum laude) in 1978 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1983. He and his wife, Nancy, are the parents of four adult children.