Jesuit Contribution to Science (PDF)

Agustín Udías, born in Santander, Spain in 1935. A priest of the Society of Jesus, obtained in 1964 his Ph. D. degree in geophysics from Saint Louis University and in 1971 the degree of Doctor en Ciencias Físicas from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has done research and teaching at the University of California, Berkeley; the Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main and at the Universidad de Barcelona. Since 1977 was Professor of Geophysics and from 2005 is Professor Emeritus at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is member of the Academia Europeae (European Academy) and corresponding member of the Real Academia de Historia (Royal academy of History (Spain)) and Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona (Academy of sciences and Arts of Barcelona). Author of Principles of Seismology (Cambridge University Press, 1999), Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The history of Jesuit Observatories (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2003), Historia de la Física. De Arquímedes a Einstein (Síntesis, Madrid, 2004), Ciencia y religión: Dos visiones del mundo (Sal Terrae, Santander 2010) and with J. Mezcua of Fundamentos de Geofísica (1 ed. Alhambra, 1985, 2. Ed. Alianza, Madrid, 1997) with E. Buforn and C. Pro. Solved problems of geophysics (Cambridge University Press, 2012). He has published a large number of articles in international journals on the topics of earthquake source mechanism, seismicity and seismotectonics of the Mediterranean region, on science and religion, on Teilhard de Chardin and the history of Jesuits in science.

“This excellent book by Udias (Complutense Univ. of Madrid, Spain) provides a comprehensive survey of Jesuit science from the beginning of the Society of Jesus in 1540 to the present. … The book concludes with long lists of Jesuit scientists organized by disciplines and a comprehensive bibliography. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic, professional, and general library collections.” (P. Grendler, Choice, Vol. 52 (11), July, 2015)