Gold Mass & Reception

Calling all STEM* enthusiasts! St. Tom's will celebrate a Gold Mass on Friday, Nov. 15, at 5:30 p.m., the feast day for St. Albert the Great (patron saint of natural science), with a networking reception after Mass in Newman Hall. Also, that week, Purdue Catholic Scientists will host Dr. Sofia Carozza, a postdoctoral research fellow from Harvard Medical School, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, in Newman Hall. All are invited to a reception at 4:30 p.m. and her presentation titled "What is the Brain?" at 5:30 p.m. 

Dr. Carozza uses computational modeling to study the role of the early environment in developing the human brain. Her lecture will explore the popular idea that persons will one day be able to exist as neural networks or disembodied "brains in a vat."  This neurocentric approach leaves no room for the human goods of embodiment, freedom, communion, and desire. Far from explaining these goods away, studying the brain upholds their inescapable contributions to flourishing. More information on Gold Masses can be found here: https://catholicscientists.org/gold-masses/

*STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) students, teachers, scientists, and those working or retired from STEM fields. 

About St. Albert the Great: (c. 1200 - 1280) was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop who is considered one of the greatest medieval thinkers: 

• Known for: Albert the Great was a universal thinker who wrote about many subjects, including astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, and geography. He also made original contributions to logic, psychology, metaphysics, meteorology, mineralogy, and zoology. 
• Influences: Albert the Great was influenced by Aristotle and Avicenna. 
• Education: Albert the Great attended the University of Paris and the University of Padua.
• Accomplishments: Albert the Great wrote a compendium of all knowledge, which took him 20 years to complete. He also served as an educator in Paris and Cologne, as Dominican provincial, and as bishop of Regensburg. 
• Canonization: Pope Pius XI declared Albert the Great a saint and a doctor of the Church in 1931. 
• Patron saint: Pope Pius XII declared him the patron saint of the natural sciences in 1941. He is also the patron saint of philosophers.