Michael Heller, 72, a Polish cosmologist, Catholic priest and philosopher, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize, valued at more than $1.6 million. The Templeton Prize, awarded for “progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities,” is the world's largest annual monetary award given to an individual. Heller, along with fellow scientist and former director of the Vatican Observatory, George Coyne, is the author of the book A Comprehensible Universe, to be published by Springer in May 2008. This year’s Templeton Prize will be officially awarded to Heller by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, May 7th.
In a telephone interview with the New York Times, Professor Heller explained his affinity for the two fields: “I always wanted to do the most important things, and what can be more important than science and religion? Science gives us knowledge, and religion gives us meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence.” A Comprehensible Universe, which bears the subtitle ‘The Interplay of Science and Theology’, emphasizes the need for rational argument in all attempts to understand our world.
Heller established himself as an international figure among cosmologists and physicists through his prolific writings – he has more than 30 books and nearly 400 papers to his credit – on such topics as the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, multiverse theories and their limitations, geometric methods in relativistic physics such as noncommutative geometry, and the philosophy and history of science.
Michael Heller was born on March 12, 1936 in Tarnow, Poland. He earned a master of theology degree in 1959 from the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, and was ordained a priest in April 1959. He returned to the Catholic University in 1960, earning a master of philosophy in 1965 with a thesis on the philosophical aspects of relativity theory, and a Ph.D. in philosophy with a thesis in relativistic cosmology in 1966. Heller is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow, Poland.
The Templeton Prize, awarded since 1973, is a cornerstone of the John Templeton Foundation's international efforts to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions, ranging from explorations into the laws of nature and the universe to questions on love, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity. Heller plans to use his prize to create a center for the study of science and theology at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow.