2009 Speakers

The seminars feature lectures by some of the world’s foremost scientists and theologians. In addition to their formal presentations, the speakers engage in question and answer sessions and informal discussions with the fellows, often well into the evening.

Denis R. Alexander

  • Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge
  • Senior Affiliated Scientist
    The Babraham Institute, Cambridge
  • Fellow, St. Edmund’s College
  • Author, Rebuilding the Matrix

John D. Barrow FRS

  • Professor of Mathematical Sciences
    Director, Millennium Mathematics Project
    Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
    University of Cambridge
  • Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
  • Author, Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science

Dame Gillian Beer

  • Emeritus King Edward VII Professor of English Literature
    President of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
    University of Cambridge
  • Author, Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth Century Fiction

Simon Blackburn

  • Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
    Research Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina
    Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
  • Author, Truth: A Guide for the Perplexed

Guy Claxton

  • Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Winchester
    Co-Director, Centre for Real-World Learning
    Fellow of the British Psychological Society
  • Author, The Heart of Buddhism

Sarah Coakley

  • Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge
    Fellow, New Hall, University of Cambridge
  • Author, Pain and Its Transformations: The Interface of Biology and Culture

Alasdair Coles

  • Lecturer in Neuroimmunology
  • Associate, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge

Noah Efron

  • Chair, Program on Science, Technology & Society
    Bar Ilan University    , Israel
  • President, Israeli Society for History & Philosophy of Science
  • Author, Judaism & Science: A Historical Introduction

John Gray

  • Emeritus School Professor of European Thought
    London School of Economics
  • Author, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia

Edward Kessler

Michael Langford

  • Former Professor of Philosophy and Medical Ethics
    University of Newfoundland
    Former Fellow and Chaplain of Queens' College, Cambridge
  • Author, A Liberal Theology for the Twenty-First Century

Michael McCullough

  • Professor of Psychology
    University of Miami
  • Author, Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct

Simon Conway Morris FRS

  • Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology
    University of Cambridge
  • Author, Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe

Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne FRS

  • President Emeritus
    Queens’ College
    University of Cambridge
  • Author, Science and Theology

Tariq Ramadan

  • Visiting Professor of Identity and Citizenship at Erasmuse
    University Rotterdam
  • Senior Research Fellow, Lokahi Foundation, UK
  • Author, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam

Steven Rose

  • Emeritus Professor, Department of Life Sciences,
    The Open University
  • Author, Lifelines: Life Beyond the Gene

Richard Swinburne FBA

  • Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion
    University of Oxford
    Emeritus Fellow, Oriel College
  • Author, The Existence of God

Keith Ward

  • Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Fellow of the British Academy
  • Author, Pascal's Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding

In Memoriam

portrait: Peter Lipton

The late Peter Lipton, Hans Rausing Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, lectured each year at the Templeton–Cambridge Journalism Fellowships Program, until his untimely death in November 2007. His lectures, a model of clarity and spiced with humour, were exceptionally popular with Fellows. He had a unique way of using the philosophy of science to explore philosophical issues about religion. The University of Cambridge has created a page in his honor.