List of Jesuit scientists

This is a list of Jesuit scientists, who contributed somehow to history of science. Members of the Society of Jesus have a historical and occasionally controversial role in the history of science. These are Jesuits who were notable scientists and were not required to be of any significance in discussing the relationship between religion and science. Also, included are fictional characters of Jesuit scientists in literature as well as historical people. It is chronologically arranged by date of death.

Jesuit Astronomers with Chinese Scholars in the 18th Century

17th Century

• José de Acosta (1540–1600), one of the first naturalists and anthropologists of the Americas.
• Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Spanish mathematician, translator, and noted for his importance to the Jesuit China missions.
• Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), German mathematician and astronomer, most noted in connection with the Gregorian calendar, but also his arithmetic books were used by many mathematicians including Leibniz and Descartes.
• François d'Aguilon (1567-1617), Belgian mathematician and physicist who worked on optics.
• Giuseppe Biancani (1566-1624), Italian astronomer and selenographer who wrote Sphaera mundi, seu cosmographia demonstrativa, ac facili methodo tradita.
• Wenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer (1588-1626), Czech astronomer and missionary to China.
• Charles Malapert (1581-1630), Belgian astronomer known for observing the stars of the southern sky and being against Copernicus.
• Christoph Grienberger (1561-1636), Austrian astronomer and mathematician.
• Christoph Scheiner (c.1573-1650), German astronomer noted for a dispute with Galileo Galilei over the discovery of Sunspots.
• Giovanni Battista Zupi (c.1590-1650), Italian astronomer who discovered that Mercury had orbital phases.
• Jean-Charles de la Faille (1597-1652), Belgian mathematician.
• Alexius Sylvius Polonus (1593-c.1653), Polish astronomer.
• Gerolamo Sersale (1584-1654), Italian Selenographer, the crater Sirsalis (crater) is named after him.
• Johann Baptist Cysat (1587-1657), Swiss mathematician and astronomer, who did important research on comets and the Orion nebula.
• Mario Bettinus (1582-1657), Italian mathematician and astronomer.
• Michał Boym (c. 1602-1659), Polish missionary to China known for botanical and zoological works.
• André Tacquet (1612-1660), Flemish mathematician whose work prepared the ground for the eventual discovery of calculus.
• Francesco Maria Grimaldi 1618-1663), Italian physicist, who coined the word 'diffraction' and used instruments to measure geological features on the Moon.
• Antoine de Laloubère (1600-1664), French mathematician who studied the properties of the helix.
• Gaspar Schott (1608-1666), German scientist who wrote on various mechanical and scientific topics, example gear, but did little original research.
• Niccolo Zucchi (1586-1670), Italian astronomer known for his study of Jupiter and work on telescope design.
• Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671), Italian astronomer who was the first to note that Mizar was a "double star."
• Albert Curtz (1600-1671), German astronomer.
• Jacques de Billy (1602-1679), French mathematician who wrote on number theory and astronomy.
• Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), German who in his Scrutinium Pestis of 1658 he noted the presence of "little worms" or "animalcules" in the blood, and concluded that the disease was caused by micro-organisms. This is antecedent to germ theory.

18th Century

• Valentin Stansel (1621 – 1705), Czech astronomer in Brazil, who discovered a comet, that after accurate positions were made via F. de Gottignies in Goa, became known as Estancel-Gottignies comet.
• Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706), Czech missionary and botanist, the genus Camellia is named for him.
• Paolo Casati (1617-1707), Italian scientist, notable in meteorology and speculation on Vacuums.
• Franz Reinzer (1661-1708), Austrian writer who wrote about comets, meteors, lightning, winds, fossils, metals, etc.
• Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685-1724), Brazilian naturalist noted for developing the first working aerostats.
• Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (1667-1733), Italian mathematician who was perhaps the first European to write about Non-Euclidean geometry.
• Tommaso Ceva (1648-1737), Italian mathematician and poet who wrote a work on geometry.
• Michel Benoist (1715-1774), missionary to China and scientist.
• Vincenzo Riccati (1707-1775), Italian mathematician and physicist.
• Giuseppe Asclepi (1706-1776), Italian astronomer.
• Christian Mayer (1719-1783), Czech astronomer known for his pioneering study of binary stars.
• Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711–1787), a Croatian Polymath famous for his atomic theory in part. Also for devising perhaps the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a planet from three observations of its position.
• Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), Hungarian director of the Vienna Observatory who wrote astronomy tables and observed the Transit of Venus.
• Ignacije Szentmartony (1718-1793), Croatian who 'obtained the title of royal mathematician and astronomer' and used his astronomical knowledge in mapping parts of Brazil.

19th Century

• Franz de Paula Triesnecker (1745-1817), Austrian astronomer.
• Josef Dobrovský (1753-1829), philologist, linguist, slavist and historian. One of most prominent people in Czech national revival.
• Juan Ignacio Molina (1740-1829), Chilean ornithologist and a botanist with an Author citation (botany).
• Angelo Secchi (1818-1878), Italian astronomer who discovered the existence of solar spicules and drew an early map of Mars.
• Joseph Bayma (1816-1892), Italian mathematician who did work relating to stereochemistry.
• Benito Viñes (1837-1893), Spanish scientist who led the Bethlehem College Observatory in Havana and was known as “Father Hurricane” because of his research on hurricanes.

20th Century

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

• Pierre Marie Heude (1836-1902), French missionary and zoologist.
• Manuel Magri (1851–1907), Maltese folklorist and archaeologist.
• Eugene Lafont (1837-1908), Belgian founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
• Gyula Fényi (1845-1927), Hungarian astronomer noted for his observations of the Sun.
• Franz Xaver Kugler (1862-1929), German mathematician, most known for his study of cuneiform tablets as well as being a chemist.
• James Cullen (1867-1933), Irish mathematician, known for the Cullen numbers.
• Theodor Wulf (1868-1946), German physicist who was among the first experimenters to detect excess atmospheric radiation.
• Emile Licent (1876–1952), French Jesuit trained as a natural historian. He spent more than twenty-five years researching in Tianjin, China.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), French Palaeontologist and philosopher involved in the discovery of the so-called Peking Man.
• Paul McNally (1890-1955), American astronomer who was a director of the Georgetown Observatory.
• James Macelwane (1883-1956), American seismologist

21st Century

• Luís Archer (1926-2011), Portuguese molecular biologist and editor of the journal Brotéria from 1962 to 2002.
• Roberto Busa (1913-2011), Italian priest pioneer in the usage of computers for linguistic and literary analysis.
• Guy Consolmagno (1952-), American astronomer at the Vatican Observatory who has primarily devoted himself to planetary science. He received his B.A. (1974) and M.A. (1975) from M.I.T. and earned a Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Arizona.
• George V. Coyne (1933-), American astronomer whose research interests have been in polarimetric studies of various subjects including Seyfert galaxies.
• Kevin T. FitzGerald (1955-), American molecular biologist and holds the Dr. David Lauler chair in Catholic Health Care Ethics at Georgetown University.
• José Gabriel Funes (1963-), Argentine director of the Vatican Observatory, succeeding George Coyne.
• Frank Haig (1928-), American physics professor.
• Michael C. McFarland (1948-), American computer scientist and president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Fictional Jesuits

The 'Jesuit scientist' has been used as a character of faith in several works of science fiction, some examples include:

• Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez - A character in James Blish's A Case of Conscience.
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell features several Jesuit scientists with the main one being the linguist Emilio Sandoz.
• The Star by Arthur C. Clarke features a Jesuit scientist in a prominent role.
• Father Paul Duré, a Jesuit theologian, archaeologist, ethnologist, and follower of Teilhard de Chardin - A character in Dan Simmons's novel Hyperion

See also

• List of Roman Catholic cleric-scientists
• List of Catholic scientists

External links

• Fairfield University on Jesuits in science (via archive.org)
• Loyola University Chicago - Jesuits and the Sciences page