The Templeton Prize – John Barrow (2006)

John D. Barrow (2006)

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University, Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project, and was recently appointed the new Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College in London for 2008-2011. Founded in 1596, this is the oldest mathematics professorship in the UK and previous holders include Isaac Barrow, Robert Hooke, and Roger Penrose. Barrow was Gresham Professor of Astronomy from 2003-2007 and is the only person other than Laurence Rooke, in 1657, to hold Gresham chairs in two different subjects.

Barrow is a cosmologist whose writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding, have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern. His insights from mathematics, physics, and astronomy challenge scientists and theologians to cross the boundaries of their disciplines if they are to fully realize what they may or may not understand about how time, space, and matter began, and the behavior of the universe. He is the author of more than 420 scientific articles on cosmology and astrophysics as well as 17 books, translated into 28 languages, which explore many of the wider historical, philosophical, and cultural ramifications of developments in astronomy, physics, and mathematics, and the author of the successful stage play, Infinities.

Barrow first caught wide attention with his 1986 book, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, co-authored with Frank J. Tipler. In 1989, he delivered the Gifford Lectures, which led to Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation (1991). Other books have explored the links between the universe and human aesthetic appreciation (The Artful Universe, 1995), and how the universe is peculiarly characterized by what cannot be known about it (Impossibility: The Limits of Science and The Science of Limits, 1998).

Barrow’s recent research focuses on the ways in which astronomy can test the constancy of the so-called “constants of Nature.” His most recent books are The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless (2005), and Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science (2008).