Meet Brother Jonathan J. Stott, Chair of the Physics department and associate professor of physics at Fairfield University. Brother Jonathan received his undergraduate degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he graduated as a physics major in 1993. He went straight to doctoral studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, receiving his Ph.D. in physics in 1998, his Ph.D. was titled ‘Theoretical Studies of Dendrimeric and Heliclinic Liquid Crystals’. He then went on to work for two years in a postdoc position at Northeastern University, his research during his postdoc years focused on medical imaging and had very little to do with his actual Ph.D. work. Continuing down the path of researching medical imaging he went on to work at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital for several years. During this time at Massachusetts General, he became increasingly involved in his local parish when he found his true calling in the Church. In 2004, he joined The Society of Jesus and became a Jesuit committing his life to both God and science.
While many may see a contradiction between science and religion, Brother Jonathan states that “Science and faith are not in conflict, and if they are it usually means you have either a bad image of God or a bad image of science”. His interesting background in both religion and science shows that the two can be used together to further each field. His work in physics may appear to have little to do with his religion but Stott would say, “God created the world around us and there is nothing to fear of it. This is God's handiwork. It's not going to challenge your faith'.
Br Jonathon’s most recent work on determining open cluster membership furthers our understanding of the probabilities of the new open cluster forming using an algorithm he developed. This work is more focused on astrophysics and astronomy showing an even more diverse field of interest from the Jesuit.
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