Summer school “In the Beginning: Towards a Creation-Centered Christian Worldview”

Preliminary webinar

Date: 22 march 2024, online (link will be sent via e-mail)
Time: 18:00 Romania time
Speakers: Prof. Dr. Ralf Bergmann, Dr. Emanuel Tundrea, Charles Catlett, Dr. Alin Cucu
Program:
18:00 – 19:00 Ralf Bergmann: “Manipulation and Propaganda – How to Recognize and Deal With It”
19:00 – ca. 20:30 “Creation-Centered Perspectives on AI” (Panel with Emanuel Tundrea, Charles Catlett and Alin Cucu)
Speaker bios see below or click on links!

July 8-13, SBT Guest House, Beatenberg, Switzerland
Summer School organized by the project “The Meaning of Creation”

Have you ever wondered how to develop a Christian worldview that is both scripturally faithful and ties in with reality? That answers the questions which are at the heart of the turmoil in today’s Western societies – such as the relationship between faith and science, the question of personal identity, or the question of truth in public debate – in a convincing and livable way? But which also provides a perspective for the Christian’s walk with God, deeply rooting the Christian lifestyle in the way this world was made by the Creator? 

If you do, and if you are a student, doctoral student or early post-doc, this Summer School is for you. We have been able to highly qualified speakers from a diversity of fields who will address aspects of the question how the biblical creation account can inform our perspective on today’s world, but also our personal faith lives. Among them will be: ·     

  • Dr. Daryl and Dr. Teri McCarthy, The Leadership Anvil, USA·     
  • Dr. Dan Botica, Emanuel University, Oradea·     
  • Dr. Denise Vasiliu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi·     
  • Dr. Per Ewert, The Clapham Institute, Sweden·     
  • Prof. Dr. Ralf Bergmann, University of Bremen·     
  • Charles Catlett, Argonne National Laboratory·     
  • Dr. Emanuel Tundrea, Emanuel University, Oradea·     
  • Dr. Marius Clim, Romanian Academy, Iasi·     
  • Dr. Alin Christoph Cucu, University of Lausanne, Switzerland·     
  • Dr. Stefan-Marian Frent, Universitate de Medicina si Farmacie Victor Babes, Timisoara·     
  • Dr. Ovidiu Hanc, Emanuel University, Oradea·     
  • Dr. Filip Popovici, University of Bucharest 

Jungfraujoch (3454 m) – the highest train station in Europe

Join us from July 8-13, 2024 in beautiful Beatenberg in Switzerland, in one of the most beautiful regions of all Europe, surrounded by majestic mountains of over 4,000 meters height, two pearly lakes turquoise of glacier water and many, many hiking trails for all levels. Beside the in-person sessions in Beatenberg, the Summer School will also include one online session (ca. 2 hours) some time in spring. Housing and meals for confirmed participants will be fully covered.

Lake Thun with some 4000 meter peaks in the background          

This summer school is organized by the project “The Meaning of Creation”, which is part of the larger project “New Horizons for Science and Theology in Central and Eastern Europe”, funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Our speakers

Prof. Dr. Ralf Bergmann, Bremen

Ralf Bergmann, born in 1962, is married and has three adult children, two children-in-law and three grandchildren. He received his degree in physics and a doctorate from German universities. He is or has been mainly involved in semiconductor physics and technology, photovoltaics and optical technologies at several research institutions in Germany and Australia and has also worked in industrial research. Since 2008 he is a professor and head of a research institute working on optical technologies and optoelectronics. Beyond his research, he is defending the reasonability and relevance of Christian faith, with respect to the joint concerns of physics, philosophy, and theology as well as modern western society. In 2019, he wrote the book “Gott und die Erklärung der Welt” (God and the explanation of the world), and in 2021 “Diefreie Gesellschaft und ihre Feinde” (The free society and its enemies) in remembrance of Karl Poppers famous book “The open society and its enemies” and the works of Francis Schaeffer. Bergmann is, amongst other activities,  a founding member of the German speaking network for defending the freedom of science (https://www.netzwerk-wissenschaftsfreiheit.de/) and a member of the leadership circle of the German Christian Professorenforum.  Corresponding resources in English and German can be found in http://www.professorenforum.de/.

Charles Catlett

Charlie Catlett is a Senior Computer Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation.

Charlie is the founding director of the Urban Center for Computation and Data (UrbanCCD), a joint Argonne-UChicago research center that brings scientists, artists, architects, technologists, and policy makers together to use computation, data analytics, and embedded system to understand the dynamics, design, and resilient operation of cities. He is also a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Before joining Argonne in 2000, Charlie served as Chief Technology Officer of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Beginning at NCSA’s founding in 1985, he participated in the development of NSFNET, one of several early national networks that evolved into what we now experience as the Internet. During the exponential growth of the web following the release of NCSA’s Mosaic web browser, his team developed and supported NCSA’s scalable web server infrastructure.

From 1999 to 2004 Charlie directed the design and deployment of I-WIRE, a dedicated fiber optic network funded by the State of Illinois, which connects research institutions in the Chicago area and downstate Illinois to support high-performance computing and networking research and education. In 1999, Catlett co-founded the Global Grid Forum, (subsequently Open Grid Forum), serving as its founding chair from October 1999 through September 2004.

From 2004 through 2007, he was director of the TeraGrid Initiative, a national-scale facility supported by the National Science Foundation and from 2007-2011, Catlett served as Argonne’s Chief Information Officer.

Catlett has been involved in Grid (distributed) computing since the early 1990s, when he co-authored (with Larry Smarr) the 1992 seminal paper ​“Metacomputing” in the Communications of the ACM, which outlined many of the concepts that underpin ​“grid” and ​“cloud” computing.

Government Technology magazine named Charlie one of 25 ​“Doers, Dreamers & Drivers” of 2016. In 2014 Crain’s Chicago Business recognized him as one of Chicago’s ​“Tech 50” technology leaders.

Charlie is a Computer Engineering graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Emanuel Tundrea

Dr. ing. Emanuel Țundrea s-a alăturat echipei didactice și de cercetare a Universității Emanuel din Oradea în 2001. În 2009 a primit titlul de doctor în inginerie software de la Universitatea Politehnică din Timișoara în cotutelă cu Universitatea din Nisa și Sophia-Antipolis, Franța, iar în 2011 masteratul în teologie pastorală de la Universitatea Emanuel din Oradea.Din 2010 este membru al Cambridge Scholars Network și, de asemenea, membru în comitetul de conducere al European Leadership Forum.Spațiul universitar l-a privit tot timpul din perspectiva câmpului misionar și acela de a face ucenici pe care, mai apoi, să îi integreze în biserica locală. Emanuel este căsătorit cu Nadia și împreună au primit spre ucenicie 3 băieți. Fie că e vorba de un proiect misionar, fie de o ieșire la schi sau o excursie cu bicicletele, se bucură să fie cât mai mult împreună cu baieții lor și studenții ucenicizați.