Dr. David Snoke, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, will be visiting the Shawnee State University campus at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13 in the Flohr Lecture at Clark Memorial Library.
            “Dr. Snoke is a leading physicist in the cutting edge field of the Bose-Einstein condensate, a super-cold material that can slow light down to just 35 mph,” said Tim Hamilton, assistant professor of Natural Sciences and director of Clark Planetarium at SSU. “He works with high-powered lasers to create this out of strange particles called excitons and polaritons.”
            He is author of “A Biblical Case for an Old Earth,” where he talks about his interpretation of the Bible and Intelligent Design. He says that the Intelligent Design movement has many facets, including political aims, an apologetic argument for the existence of God, a forum for skepticism about classic Darwinism, and a communication network for scientists doing actual science.
            “In this talk I will discuss mostly the scientific issues involved, and why they are serious issues,” Snoke said. “I will also address some of the classic objections to ID in the science arena: Is it a science stopper? Does God-talk transgress the proper demarcation of science? Is ID an unfalsifiable hypothesis? Is it a dangerous attack on the roots of science?”
            Snoke’s experimental research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, focuses on fundamental quantum mechanics effects in solids. He has published more than 100 journal articles, two scientific books with Cambridge University Press, and a textbook on solid state physics with Addison-Wesley.
            Before working at the University of Pittsburgh, Snoke worked at the Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles and at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990, and his bachelor’s in physics from Cornell University in 1983.
            In 2006, Snoke was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is also a licensed preacher in the Presbyterian Church in America, and preaches frequently. He was also elected a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, a society for philosophy of science and religion.
            “His expertise is not confined to physics,” Hamilton said. “As a preacher, he has promoted the compatibility of science and religion from the pulpit.”