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John Polkinghorne is born.
John Charlton Polkinghorne is a physicist and priest born on October 16, 1930, in Weston-super-Mare, England. Polkinghorne had a pretty good education early in life, having a break of a year to serve in the national service at the Royal Army Educational Corps. -
Polkinghorne in college.
Right after his time on national service, Polkinghorne went to Trinity College in Cambridge, graduating in 1952 as part of the "Senior Wrangler", the top mathematics undergraduates at the university. -
An amazing Physics Ph.D.
In 1955, Polkinghorne received his Ph.D. in Physics with his thesis "Contributions to Quantum Field Theory". His Ph.D. was supervised by Abdus Salam (Nobel prized physicist) in a group led by no one less than Paul Dirac (Theoretical physicist recognized as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century). -
A big career change.
Polkinghorne then started his career in 1956 as a lecturer and worked as a reader and professor throughout the years. In 1977, he decided to train to the priesthood, resigning his professor title in 1979 and studying at an Anglican theological college in Cambridge called the Westcott House, becoming a priest on June 6, 1982. -
Polkinghorne as a priest.
Polkinghorne worked as a curate and then as a vicar for five years, until he returned to Cambridge and took the chair as a president of Queens' College in 1986, until 1996. He was also serving as a priest at the Liverpool Cathedral from 1994 to 2005. -
John Polkinghorne - Why is the Quantum so Mysterious? (VIDEO)
Here is a short but very interesting video where Polkinghorne talks about god and the quantum universe, and explain a little about his ideas! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Tp8UqdaEU -
Polkinghorne work and ideas.
Polkinghorne contributed a lot to the philosophy of science and science in general while also helping the theology field. He published 32 books, being 5 of them about physics, and 26 about how science and religion can work together, an idea that was known to be his career goal to accomplish, the mutual understanding between both parties. -
Works Cited
Turner, Darrell J.. "John Polkinghorne". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Oct. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Polkinghorne. Accessed 2 February 2021. O'Connor, J. J., & Robertson, E. F. (2008, July). John Polkinghorne - Biography. Retrieved February 02, 2021, from https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Polkinghorne/ -
Polkinghorne today.
John Polkinghorne is still alive as of today. Now being 90 years old, he still talks in interviews about his ideas, and how closely related science and religion are.
