Founder and Principal Investigator -
Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences
California State University Sacramento |
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Michael Epperson did his doctoral work in philosophy of science and philosophy of religion at The University of Chicago, and earned his Ph.D. there in 2003. His dissertation, Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, was written under the direction of philosopher David Tracy and physicist Peter Hodgson, Head of the Nuclear Physics Theoretical Group at the University of Oxford. It was published the following year by Fordham University Press.  |
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Timothy E. Eastman
Consultant in Space Physics and Plasma Sciences - Plasmas International
Group Manager for Space Science Support
Heliospheric Physics Laboratory - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Dr. Timothy E. Eastman of Plasmas International is a consultant and concurrently Perot Systems Group Manager for science support at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Eastman discovered the Low-Latitude Boundary Layer (LLBL) of the Earth’s magnetosphere (1976), and discovered gyro-phase bunched ions in space plasmas by analyzing energetic ion distribution functions near Earth’s bow shock (1981). He has published 100 research papers in space physics and related fields and has provided key leadership of the nation’s research programs in space plasma physics while program manager at NASA Headquarters (1985-1988) and NSF (1991-1994). |
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David Ritz Finkelstein
Professor Emeritus - Department of Physics
Georgia Tech |
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| David Ritz Finkelstein works on the intersection of quantum theory, general relativity, and elementary particles. His project is to convert deeper levels of physics from Boole's logic to quantum logic. This leads to a multilevel quantum logic reported in his book Quantum Relativity: A Synthesis of the Ideas of Einstein and Heisenberg. As offshoots of this activity, he has contributed to early work on the topology of the gravitational field, the concept of the black hole, the gauge theory of electroweak interactions, and a philosophical interpretation of quantum theory that replaces states of being by modes of interaction--ontology by praxiology. |
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Stuart A. Kauffman
Founding director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics
Professor of Biological Sciences, Physics, and Astronomy
University of Calgary |
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| Stuart Kauffman is the founding director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics and a professor of biological sciences, physics, and astronomy at the University of Calgary. He is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, a MacArthur Fellow, and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, of which he was a founding member. His books include: The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution and At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. |
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Henry P. Stapp
Senior Staff - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Physicist - University of California Berkeley |
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Henry Stapp did his doctorial work under the direction of Nobel Laureates Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain. He created the theoretical framework for the analysis of the scattering of polarized protons, and then analyzed the data obtained from the experiments at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University California in Berkeley, obtaining the phase shifts first at 360 Mev at later at higher energies. His work was the first large-scale computer analysis in high-energy physics. Subsequently he worked closely with Wolfgang Pauli in Zurich on parity violations, and on fundamental problems in quantum theory. |
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William Kallfelz
Department of Philosophy
University of Maryland |
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| Dr. William Michael Kallfelz specializes in research in the foundations of physics, philosophy of science, and mathematical physics, with an additional area of competence in the philosophy of language. He holds Master of Science degrees in physics and in applied mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia.) as well a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia.) William has recently earned a Ph.D. in the Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPaS) program at the University of Maryland, working under Jeffrey Bub, in May, 2008. |
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Jorge Luis Nobo
Department of Philosophy
Washburn University |
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| Dr. Jorge Luis Nobo, is professor of philosophy at Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas. In 1973, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he wrote his dissertation on Whitehead under the direction of Dr. Charles Hartshorne. Dr. Nobo specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, process philosophy, and the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. He is the author of Whitehead's Metaphysics of Extension and Solidarity, SUNY Press (New York: 1986, 439 pp.), and co-editor of The Individual and Society, Southwestern Journal of Philosophy Press (Norman: 1978, 213 pp.). His articles have appeared in various philosophy journals and books. He is currently working on issues regarding free will and the ultimate nature of time. |
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George Shields
Chair, Division of Literature, Languages, and Philosophy
Kentucky State University |
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George W. Shields is the 2000-2001 University Distinguished Professor, Professor of Philosophy, and Chairperson of the Division of Literature, Languages, and Philosophy at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky. He also serves as Professorial Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Louisville, where he has taught graduate level health care ethics and law at the Health Sciences campus. He holds the PhD from The University of Chicago, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation on the philosophy of Charles Hartshorne. He has done further study at Oxford University, England. |
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Mohsen Shiri-Garakani
Department of Physics
Pace University
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Mohsen Shiri-Garakani finished his doctoral work in physics under the direction of Prof. David Finkelstein at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In that work, Mohsen modified the quantum theory of the harmonic oscillator based on Segals’ Principle of Simplicity, which states: group of a physical theory must be a simple (Lie) group. This principle is based on an interesting observation that major changes in physical theories exhibit a distinct family resemblance: the non-semi-simple group of the old theory simplifies to the group of the new theory, while the latter reproduce the former in some appropriate limit, where (in the reverse order) a physical parameter (e.g. the speed of light) previously thought to be infinite in the old theory (e.g., Galileo relativity), becomes finite in the new theory (e.g., Einstein’s relativity). |
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Karim Bschir
Senior Research Fellow
Chair for Philosophy
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich |
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Karim Bschir studied biochemistry and philosophy at the University of Zurich. He received his M.Sci. in biochemistry in 2003 (thesis title: “In vitro Arginine Methylation of Recombinant Ewing Sarcoma (EWS) Protein”. See: Proteins 61 (1): 164-175, 2005.). In 2004, he continued his studies in philosophy. During that time, he was also working as a high school teacher for philosophy and as a subject specialist in an exhibition on current developments in the Life Sciences at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. In November 2004, he commenced a Ph.D. project in philosophy at the University of Zurich. Since January 2007, he is continuing his Ph.D. studies at ETH Zurich. He will be visiting the Center for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at London School of Economics form Fall 2009 to April 2010.
Karim’s philosophical work focuses on scientific realism and the question whether and how empirical sciences relate to reality. Besides his expertise in philosophy of science, he has strong interests in history of philosophy and history of science, epistemology and metaphysics, as well as in philosophy of biology. |
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Kelly John Rose
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics
University of Calgary |
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Kelly John Rose received his M.Sci. in Applied Mathematics from the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics at the University of Calgary in 2009. He is affiliated with the Institute for Biocomplexity and
Informatics as well as the Haskayne School of Business in Calgary. Currently, he resides in Toronto
and is a senior partner in a software development consulting firm and works regularly with the
complex systems group at the Perimeter Institute. His previous experience includes: Working as a
research assistant and software developer at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of
Waterloo, and performing cryptographic research for the Canadian government. At this time, Rose’s
interests focus on the relations between information theoretic measures and the input-output matrices
in economical and ecological systems, and developing new mathematical tools for understanding such
complex systems. |
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Ronny Desmet
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Logic and the Philosophy of Science
Vrije Universiteit, Brussels |
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Ronny Desmet received his M.S. in mathematics in 1983 from the University of Antwerp, specializing in the mathematics and philosophy of quantum mechanics. He received his M.A. in philosophy in 2005, and is currently preparing his Ph.D. dissertation on Whitehead's theory of relativity, supervised by Prof. Jean Paul Van Bendegem. After a career in the private sector, he left a position at Sun Microsystems in 2002 to study philosophy, and currently he is a research fellow at the Centre of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels and is a founding member of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at California State University, Sacramento. |
