Davies, Paul Charles William

▪ 1996

      On May 3 the mathematical physicist Paul Davies was awarded the 1995 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Professor of natural philosophy at the University of Adelaide, Australia, Davies received the honour, which carried a monetary award of $1 million, for his efforts to resolve the dichotomy between science and religion. With his acceptance he became one of an elite group of people, which includes Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who had been given the prize since its establishment by Wall Street wizard John Templeton in 1972.

      Throughout his career Davies had sought to bring an understanding of the universe to the general public. To Davies the presence of the laws of physics suggested a meaningful design to the universe, and the ability of humans to comprehend mathematics and science was their connection with that design and the designer. As he stated in his award acceptance speech in Westminster Abbey, "Although we are not at the centre of the universe, human existence does have a powerful wider significance. Whatever the universe as a whole may be about, . . . we, in some limited yet ultimately profound way, are an integral part of its purpose."

      Davies was born in London on April 22, 1946. He graduated from University College, London, in 1967 with a bachelor's degree and remained to earn a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. Upon graduation in 1970 he worked as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and two years later accepted a position at King's College, London, as a lecturer in applied mathematics.

      Davies became interested in the theory of quantum fields in curved space-time and focused much of his research in that area. He published The Physics of Time Asymmetry (1974), the first of more than 20 books directed to either his professional colleagues or the general public. Davies then joined physicists Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, who were researching the thermodynamic properties of black holes.

      In the 1980s Davies served as professor of theoretical physics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. During those years he published such books as The Edge of Infinity (1981), on the topic of black holes; God and the New Physics (1983); and Superstrings: A Theory of Everything? (1988), based on his BBC documentary on the topic.

      Davies moved to Australia in 1990 to accept the chair of mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide. A year later he published The Matter Myth, an argument against the idea of a Newtonian clockwork universe. In 1992 appeared one of his most influential works, The Mind of God, which explores the connectedness of science and religion. The following year the university created the position of professor of natural philosophy for him. Davies' most recent publications were About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution and Are We Alone? (both 1995). The latter examines the implications for humanity should extraterrestrial life be found. (AMANDA E. FULLER)

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