Annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science
The annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science brings internationally distinguished scholars in religion and science to the GTU.
Since 1981, Russell Fellows have been in residence at CTNS/GTU every year to conduct research, teach doctoral and seminary courses and present public lectures at the GTU and at other San Francisco Bay Area locations.
The annual Russell Family Fellowship in Religion and Science was created in memory of John K. Russell (1896-1958). Mr. Russell, born of Italian immigrants, was an industrial engineer and humanitarian. In 2015, The J.K. Russell Research Fellowship in Religion and Science was renamed the Russell Family Fellowship in Religion and Science to honor the contributions of the Russell Family as a whole to this annual Fellowship.
2023-24 Fellowship
2023-24 Fellow Dr. Brian Patrick Green
Brian is the director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and teaches AI ethics in Santa Clara University’s Graduate School of Engineering. His work focuses on AI and ethics, technology ethics in corporations, the ethics of space exploration and use, the ethics of technological manipulation of humans, the ethics of mitigation of and adaptation towards risky emerging technologies, and various aspects of the impact of technology and engineering on human life and society, including the relationship of technology and religion (particularly the Catholic Church).
Green is author of the book Space Ethics (2021), co-author of Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap (The ITEC Handbook) (2023), co-author of the Ethics in Technology Practice (2018) corporate technology ethics resources, contributing author to Encountering AI: Ethical and Anthropological Investigations (forthcoming, 2023), co-editor of the book Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (2022), and co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Moral Theology on AI (2022).
Green has been a lead contributor on three World Economic Forum case studies on ethical practices at Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM, and has worked with the Partnership on AI, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, and technology companies ranging from startups to the largest. He also supervises undergraduate fellowships at Santa Clara in technology ethics and environmental ethics.
Green has doctoral and master's degrees in ethics and social theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree is in genetics from the University of California, Davis. Between college and graduate school, he served for two years in the Jesuit Volunteers International teaching high school in the Marshall Islands, where he saw first-hand the devastating impacts of unethically-used technologies (nuclear weapons and fossil fuels) on people and their nation.
Green has been published, interviewed, or mentioned in media including America, Ars Technica, The Atlantic, Axios, BigThink, CNN.com, FiveThirtyEight, Forbes.com, Fortune.com, KCBS, NBC Bay Area, NPR, Nature, The San Jose Mercury News, Smithsonian.com, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED Magazine, the World Economic Forum website, and WNYC.
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"Should God Have Given Humans Technology?: Considerations of Nuclear Weapons, Space Technologies, Synthetic Biology, and Artificial Intelligence"
Fellow's Online Public Forum
Thursday, November 9, 2023 @ 6 pm - 8 pm
This event will be online only, please register here : Russell Family Fellowship Public Forum
This event is free and open to the public. Registration required.
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"Emerging Technologies as Provocations for Theology and Ethics"
The Annual Russell Family Research Conference
Friday, November 10, 2023 @ 12 pm - 5 pm
This event will be in hybrid format, with Dr. Green and some respondents in person at the Graduate Theological Union, as well as other respondents on Zoom. You are welcome to attend in person or online. Please register here : Russell Family Fellowship Research Conference
This event is free and open to the public. Registration required.
Questions? Please write to ctns-info@gtu.edu.
Past CTNS Russell Research Fellows
Kirk Wegter-McNelly — 2020-2021
Engaging Hypotheticals: Groundwork for the Study of Theology in a Secular Academic Context
Adam Pryor — 2019-2020
Living Into our Shared Humanity: Exploring the Religious Significance of Astrobiology
Joshua M. Moritz — 2018-2019
What has Science to do with Youth Ministry?: Why Theological Engagement with the Natural Sciences is Vital for Effective and Impactful Youth Ministry
Ron Cole-Turner — 2017-2018
New Perspectives from Science on Human Origins
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson — 2016-2017
Religion, Science and Technology: Jewish Perspectives
Terrence W. Deacon and Tyrone Cashman — 2015-2016
Science, Naturalized Teleology and a Metaphysics of Incompleteness
Noreen Herzfeld — 2014-2015
More than Information: A Christian Critique of a New Dualism
Alex Filippenko — 2013-2014
Life in the Universe, Scientific and Religious Perspectives
Niels Henrik Gregersen — 2012-2013
God, Information and the Sciences of Complexity
J. K. Russell Research Fellowship / CTNS 30th Anniversary Conference — 2011-2012
God and Creation: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Scientific Cosmology
Alnoor Dhanani, Daniel Matt and William Stoeger, SJ, Joint Fellows
Thomas Tracy — 2010-2011
Scientific Vetoes and the "Hands-Off God": Can we Say that God Acts in History?
Francisco J. Ayala — 2008-2009
Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion
George V. Coyne — 2007-2008
Twenty Years After the New View from Rome: Pope John Paul II on Science and Religion
Celia Deane-Drummond — 2006-2007
The Evolution of Sin and the Redemption of Nature
Martinez Hewlett and Ted Peters — 2005-2006
Assessing the Case(s) for Theistic Evolution
Niels Henrik Gregersen — 2003-2004
Complexity Studies and Theories of Emergence: What Does It All Mean for Religion?
The Complexification of Nature: Supplementing the Neo-Darwinian Paradigm
Paul Davies — 2002-2003
Multiverse and Anthropic Fine-Tuning: Philosophical and Theological Implications
Archbishop Joseph Zycinski — 2001-2002
Beyond Necessity and Design: God's Immanence in the Process of Evolution
Philip Clayton — 2000-2001
The Emergence of Spirit
John Cobb, Jr. — 1999-2000
Science, Theology and Whitehead's Philosophy
Nancey Murphy — 1998-1999
Neuroscience, Mental Causation, and Freedom of the Will
Mary-Claire King — 1997-1998
Theological and Ethical Implications of Recent Research in Genetics
John Haught — 1996-1997
Science, Religion, and the Role of Metaphysics
Margaret Wertheim — 1995-1996
Women in Science, Women in Theology
George F.R. Ellis — 1994
What Does Scientific Cosmology Tell Us About God
Mary Gerhart & Allan M. Russell — 1993
Metaphoric Process as the Reformation of Worlds of Meaning in Theology and Natural Sciences
CTNS Decade Conference — 1992
Building Bridges Between Theology and Science: Beginning the Second Decade of CTNS
Holmes Rolston, III — 1991
Genes, Genesis, and God in Natural and Human History
Robert W. Jensen — 1990
Does God Have Time? The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Concept of Time in Physical Sciences
John Polkinghorne — 1990
The Church and the Environmental Crisis: Which Way Are We Heading?
God's Interaction with the World: Research Proposals by John Polkinghorne
The Challenge of Physics to World Religions
Lindon Eaves — 1988-1989
Genes, Culture and Personality: An Empirical Approach
William R. Stoeger, S.J. — 1987-1988
Cosmology and What It Tells Us About Physical Reality Philosophical and Theological Implications of Contemporary Cosmology-the Philosophy and Theology of Creation
Ernan McMullin — 1986-1987
The Viability of Natural Theology from a Roman Catholic Perspective in Light of Contemporary Science and Philosophy
Wolfhart Pannenberg — 1985-1986
The Doctrine of Creation and Modern Science
Arthur R. Peacocke, SOSc — 1984-1985
Critical Realism in Science and Religion
Philip Hefner — 1983-1984
Do the Sciences Throw Light on God's Presence in the World?
Ian G. Barbour — 1982-1983
Toward a Theology of Technology
Andrew Dufner, S.J. — 1981-1982
Science, Theology & Spirituality