Marcelo Gleiser, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and leading advocate of the view that science, philosophy, and spirituality are complementary expressions of the human need to embrace mystery and the unknown, has been announced as the laureate of the 2019 Templeton Prize.
Gleiser, 60, the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has gained international acclaim through his books, essays, blogs, TV documentaries, and lectures that present science as a spiritual quest to understand the origins of the universe and life on Earth.
Born in Brazil, where his books are bestsellers and his television series attract audiences in the millions, Gleiser has become the first Latin American to receive the Templeton Prize.
For 35 years, his research has examined a wide range of topics, from the behavior of quantum fields and elementary particles to cosmology of the primordial universe, dynamics of phase transitions, astrobiology, and new fundamental measures of entropy and complexity based on information theory, with over 100 peer-reviewed articles published to date.
Gleiser is a prominent voice among scientists, past and present, who reject the notion that science alone can lead to ultimate truths about the nature of reality. Instead, in his parallel career as a public intellectual, he reveals the historical, philosophical, and cultural ties between science, the humanities, and spirituality, advocating for a complementary approach to knowledge, especially on issues where science cannot provide a final answer.
He often describes science as an “engagement with the mysterious,” inseparable from humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Gleiser’s writings propose that modern science has brought humanity back to the metaphorical center of creation – his doctrine of “humancentrism” – by revealing the improbable uniqueness of our planet and the exceptional rarity of humans as intelligent beings capable of understanding the importance of being alive. This inversion of Copernicanism, he argues, provokes the need for a new cosmic morality in which the sacredness of life is extended to the planet and all living beings.
The Templeton Prize, worth £1.1 million, is one of the world’s largest annual individual awards and honors a person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming the spiritual dimension of life, whether through insights, discoveries, or practical works. The announcement was made online at www.templetonprize.org today by the John Templeton Foundation, based in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Marcelo Gleiser will formally receive the Templeton Prize at a public ceremony in New York on Wednesday, May 29.