SCS2023, the Sixth Annual Conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists

Preliminary Information:  More detailed information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Date and Venue of SCS2023

The sixth annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS2023) will be held on June 2-4, 2023 (Friday evening to Sunday early afternoon) on the campus of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.  The university is located on 58 green acres just 14 miles south of New York City.  For travel directions, see below.

Conference Topics

The conference theme is “Critical Issues at the Intersection of Science and Faith.”  This encompasses a wide range of fields and topics.  There will be six invited talks and six contributed talks, the latter being selected from contributed abstracts.

Confirmed Invited Speakers (so far)

So far, there are four confirmed invited speakers.  They are

Prof. Paul Hruz (Dept. of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) will speak on sexual identity and biology;

Prof. Kieran McNulty (Dept. of Anthropology, University of Minnesota) will speak on the origin of the human race;

Prof. Stephen M. Barr  (Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware) will speak on whether the laws of physics are fine-tuned for life (“anthropic coincidences”) and multiverse ideas;

Prof. Luc Jaeger (Dept. of Chemistry, UC Santa Barbara) will speak on the current state of “Origin of Life” research and what life is.

St. Albert Award:  The 2023 St. Albert Award will be given to Anthony Ichiro Sanda.

Poster Sessions

Posters can be either on a topic related in some way to science and faith or on the presenter’s own research, even if technical.  There will be two poster sessions.

Contributing Abstracts for Talks or Posters

Abstracts for talks should be submitted before April 1, and selections will be made by  the conference committee in early April. Abstracts for poster presentations can be submitted until May 26.  Abstracts should be less than 300 words and submitted as Word documents (or in some other editable form) and sent as attachments to smpbarr@gmail.com.  Please indicate whether you are submitting the abstract only for a talk, only for a poster, or are willing to have it as either as either.

Schedule of the Conference

The conference will start formally with a Reception that begins at 8:00pm on Friday, June 2, though there will be a buffet dinner starting at 6:00pm for those who arrive in time. There will be talks on Saturday morning and afternoon and on Sunday morning. The conference itself will end with lunch on Sunday, which will be followed by Member Meeting after lunch on Sunday..  A tentative Schedule will be posted here soon.

Registering for the Conference and Registration Fee

Registration for the Conference will open in early February, and when it does a link to the Registration Page will be sent to all members and associates of SCS.  The Registration fee will cover all the meals and receptions at the conference (i.e. both dinner and the Opening Reception on Friday; breakfast, lunch, the banquet and the pre-banquet cocktail hour, on Saturday; and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.)  The Registration Fee will be $160 for Regular Members; $80 for student members and associates; and $0 for Catholic clergy and members of religious orders.  In addition, for those staying in the dorms, there will be a dorm fee of $65 per night for single rooms.  More information on registration and fees will be posted here before the Registration Page opens.

Travel to the Conference and Parking

Seton Hall University is easily reached by plane, car, bus or train.  Directions for all these means can be found at https://www.shu.edu/visit/directions.cfm  Seton Hall University is 20 minutes by car from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and 30 minutes by car from Amtrak’s Metropark Station.  It is 30 minutes by car or train from Midtown Manhattan.

A Map of the Seton Hall University Campus can be found HERE.  https://www.shu.edu/visit/campus-map.cfm

There will be parking on campus for attendees at the conference.

Lodging

For those who do not wish to stay in dorms, there will be blocks of rooms at local hotels reserved for conference attendees.  Information about this will be posted later.