George Coyne
Father Coyne was born in 1933 in Baltimore and since 1978 has been director of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo. A priest of the Society of Jesus and an astronomer, he carries out this dual role at the head of the observatory (founded a hundred years ago by Pope Leo XIII) with the conviction that he has to represent the Church in the world of science and, within the Church, to explain the reasons of science.
He graduated in Mathematics in 1958 at Fordham University in New York, and in 1962 obtained a PhD in Astronomy at Georgetown University in Washington.
Between 1963 and 1976 he worked at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, where in the following four years he was researcher and professor at the Department of Astronomy, of which he finally served as chief director between 1979 and 1980.
Between 1978 and 1979 he directed the Catalina Observatory.
Among the research currently under way at the Vatican Observatory, Father Coyne investigates the nature of the extended atmospheres that form a kind of envelope around certain stars; of particular interest are young stars and those that are still being born. By studying the polarisation of the light emitted by stars as it crosses the atmosphere, it is possible to arrive at an ever more accurate knowledge of the materials that compose the atmosphere and of its dynamics.
Among the educational activities of the Vatican Observatory, the summer schools for graduating and newly graduated students from all over the world, held every two years, are of particular importance.
In 1991 the Castel Gandolfo observatory hosted about nineteen bishops for a course in astronomy: almost a “rematch” for Galileo.
As director of the Observatory, he promoted the establishment in Tucson, Arizona, of the observational branch of the Observatory, installing on Mount Graham a telescope with a 1.80 m mirror that constitutes the prototype of the new-generation astronomical optics that will be used, among other things, for the Italo-American Columbus telescope with two 8 m mirrors, which will also be placed on the same mountain.
Alongside his astronomical research, George Coyne has also cultivated interests in the field of philosophy and history of science, which led him in 1983 to found the series of publications “Studi Galileiani”, which he still directs. This journal — the only one devoted exclusively to historical research on Galileo — is an international forum where specialists from all over the world meet to discuss the work and thought of the one who laid the foundations of modern science.
Author of more than 150 scientific publications, he has also edited several books.
In addition to belonging to various scientific societies, he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.