The 2025 SCS CONFERENCE  (SCS2025)

THEME:

The conference theme is “Critical Issues at the Interface of Science and Faith.”  This encompasses a wide range of topics. 

VENUE AND TIMES:   

The conference will be held on June 6-8, 2025, on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  Talks will all be held in the Great Room of the Pryzbyla Center.  The Friday and Saturday evening dinners will be held in Heritage Hall.  See this MAP OF THE CUA CAMPUS.  

On Friday evening, June 6, there will be an informal buffet dinner at 6:00 PM, followed by an after-dinner talk at 7:30pm and the Opening Reception starting at 8:00 PM.  The lectures will be given on Saturday morning and afternoon and on Sunday morning.  There will be two poster sessions, one on Friday evening and one on Saturday evening after the conference banquet.  After lunch on Sunday, there will be the annual “member meeting” of SCS.

LIVE STREAM OF CONFERENCE TALKS:

The conference talks will be live streamed.  The live stream link will be placed here before the conference.

INVITED & CONTRIBUTED TALKS:

This year there will be five invited talks and seven contributed talks.  Invited talks are 40 minutes plus 10 minutes Q&A. Contributed talks are 25 minutes plus 5 minutes Q&A.  In addition, there will be a 30-minute after-dinner talk on Friday evening by Ross Douthat, a New York Times columnist and author of the just released book Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. 

The invited speakers are:   Prof.  Anselm Ramelow, O.P (Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley) will speak on Free Will, Aquinas, and the Brain.  Prof. Kenneth Kemp (University of St. Thomas, MN) will speak on The Philosophy and Theology of Human Origins.  Prof. Daniel Kuebler (Franciscan University) will speak on The Science of Human Origins.  Prof. Rogier Windhorst (Arizona State University) will speak on What the James Webb Space Telescope has Discovered and What it Means. Prof. Martin A. Nowak (Harvard University) will speak on How Mathematics Leads to God. (Exact titles of their talks to be announced.)

COMPLETE CONFERENCE PROGRAM & SCHEDULE: 

The complete Program and Schedule, with all the talks, and biographies of all 13 speakers are HERE.  Information about the Poster presentations will be added when it becomes available.

SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS FOR CONTRIBUTED TALKS:

The deadline for submitting abstracts for talks has passed.

POSTER SESSIONS & SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS FOR POSTERS:

There will be two Poster Sessions at the conference.  One on Friday evening and one on Saturday evening.  We encourage SCS members and associates to submit abstracts for posters. The deadline is May 31. Poster presentations can be on any subject.  There will be a section for more technical posters on the presenter’s own research, and sections for posters on the conference theme or other topics of broader interest.  Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and should be sent as a Word document to smpbarr@gmail.com

REGISTRATION FEE & REGISTRATION FORM:

A link to the registration page will be sent periodically by email to all SCS members, associates and others eligible to attend.   (If you receive the link, do not share it with anyone else, as otherwise people not eligible to attend may register, which will create myriad problems for the organizers).  If you are not an SCS member or associate and wish to attend the conference, please contact smpbarr@gmail.com. The undiscounted registration fee is $290. For students (grad or undergrad) it will be half of that amount, and for members of religious orders the fee will be waived altogether (though registration is still required).  The registration fee will cover all one’s meals at the conference as well as dorm rooms at the conference venue for the two nights of the conference. If you opt not to stay in a dorm room, the registration fee will be $100 less, i.e. $190 for Regular Members and Associates, $45 for students. Registration closes on May 23 (or when the capacity of the venue is reached, whichever comes first).

LODGING: 

Dorm Rooms: There are CUA dorm rooms available for all registrants. They are in the Millennium North and Millennium South dorms, a short walk to Pryzbyla Hall, where the lectures will be.  Those who choose not to stay in the dorms but to make other accommodations will pay $100 less in registration fee (see above).   There are both single and double dorm rooms.  Check-in starts and 3pm.

TRAVEL:  The conference is on the campus of the Catholic University of America (CUA), which a 5-minute walk to the Brookland-CUA Metro Station on the Red Line.   If one is traveling to Washington, DC, by Amtrak, there is a Metro Station at DC’s Union Station, which is three stops (11 min) on the Red Line from the Brookland-CUA Metro Station.  If you are flying into Reagan Washington National Airport, there is a Yellow Line Metro Station there (follow the signs to the covered walkways and into the station). If you fly into Dulles International Airport, there is a Silver Line Metro Station there (follow the signs to the underground walkway, which is approximately five minutes from the terminal).

PARKING: Details of which parking lot on campus to use will be provided here shortly.

More information will be posted here as it becomes available.  If you have questions, email smpbarr@gmail.com