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Inaugural Meeting: 

Interface between Quantum Science and Technology, Philosophy, and Catholic Theology

Chapman University, in Orange County, California, 12-15 July 2026

 

Organizers: Prof. Vincenzo Tamma, Founding Director of the Quantum Science and Technology Hub, University of Portsmouth, UK and Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Director of the Magis Center

Local Organizers: Prof. Andrew N. Jordan and Prof. Daniele C. Struppa, Institute for Quantum Studies, Chapman University

The intent of this inaugural meeting is to build an interdisciplinary community of engaged and active academic intellectuals and interested  entrepreneurs who do not normally interact.  After an opening public lecture from Prof. Tanzell -Nitti on the 12 of July, the conference will feature talks from the 13 to the 15 of July on timely research topics on philosophy, Catholic theology, science and technology, with this first meeting focused on quantum science and technology.
There will also be time scheduled for information discussion to form an international, interdisciplinary program on science, technology, philosophy and theology, dedicated to exchange of ideas and collaborative projects involving young researchers within a community of intellectuals and entrepreneurs living their faith in an international environment where an open interdisciplinary dialogue between science, technological innovation and faith can be fostered. This will also facilitate international collaborations between academic institutions, businesses, centers, societies, foundations and associations across different science, technology, philosophy and theology areas in the context of interdisciplinary research, ethical innovation, teaching, dissemination, and networking depending on their specific missions.

This international interdisciplinary programme will benefit the dialogue between science, technological innovation, philosophy and the overall Christian tradition with relevance and ecumenical reach also towards other religious traditions and the overall society.
 
The public lecture at 3pm on the 12 of July is open to everyone with free mandatory registration. There is also the possibility to attend Mass afterwards at 5pm at the university chapel.
 
Participation at the conference meetings is by invitation only. If you are an academic/intellectual or entrepreneur interested to attend, please email as soon as possible since only limited seats are available.
Please reach out to: mgaji@chapman.edu and vincenzo.tamma@port.ac.uk 
 

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Background

Since the beginning of 1900 the quantum revolution brought a new understanding of the basic structure of the natural world, has inspired philosophical and theological reflections and is now driving quantum technologies. Paraphrasing St. Augustine, the “book of nature” contains a “quantum chapter” on the nature of reality which can be of inspiration towards a deeper understanding of the ‘book of revelation’. Quantum scientists can be enriched in their studies by the engagement with philosophers and theologians and vice versa. Examples of still unresolved ‘quantum puzzles’ with philosophical and theological implications are the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, quantum indeterminism and quantum interference and correlation phenomena beyond the ‘classical’ Young double-slit experiment. Such interdisciplinary research has started to bring interest among Christian theologians (see for example the NIODA project) although only a limited number of Catholic theologians have been engaging with it generally and with a limited collaboration with quantum physicists. 

IQS Public Talk: Is the notion of God meaningful to Scientific Culture? The openness of science to the quest for truth and meaning by Prof. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti

For Tickets Click Here: IQS Public Talk

"Prof. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti" with picture of him | "Is the Notion of God Meaningful to Scientific Culture? The Openness of Science to the Quest for Truth and Meaning".

ABSTRACT:The Lecture examines whether the notion of God retains meaning within contemporary scientific culture, and whether the practice of science itself remains open to questions of truth and meaning that transcend purely empirical analysis. Rather than discussing the confrontation between science and belief, the Lecture proposes a more nuanced inquiry: what could modern science, in its methods and discoveries, implicitly say about the foundation of the whole of reality? Or, in other words, could science offer a glimpse of God?

A widespread assumption shared by scientific culture is that science, by progressively explaining natural phenomena, renders the idea of God unnecessary or meaningless. Statements by influential scientists illustrate the tension between a self-explanatory universe and the persistent human intuition that reality points beyond itself. The question is not whether science can “prove” or “disprove” God, but whether scientific knowledge exhausts all that can be meaningfully said about reality.

A central theme is the distinction between: a) explaining how the world works; and b) giving reason of that the world exists and is intelligible at all. Drawing on reflections by philosophers and scientists, such as Wittgenstein and Einstein, the lecture highlights what has often been called the “miracle of intelligibility”: the surprising correspondence between the mathematical structures of the human mind and the deep order of the natural world. Scientific laws are not mere classifications imposed from outside, but reveal a rational structure that appears to precede human understanding.

Scientific rationality lies upon foundations which transcend scientific method, while making that method possible. Scientific rationality is consistent with “openings” which point to meanings and contents that, while unable to be expressed within the formal language of science, are nonetheless significant for those who work in science.

The logical and ontological foundations of scientific knowledge, the rationality and information present in physical reality, and finally the meanings that physical reality contains and expresses, make it possible to introduce the notion of a transcendent logos. Starting from this notion, philosophy and theology can develop a discourse on God, one intelligible also to those who work in science and share a scientific culture.

In the context of scientific culture, the natural world continues to be, and manifest itself, as a “mystery.” It is reasonable, then, to ask whether the world has an explanation. The search for this ultimate explanation points to an intelligible area of meaning which justifies the possibility of a discourse on God, one meaningful also for the world of science.

Key-Note Speakers

Prof. Stephen M. Barr, University of Delaware, President of the Society of Catholic Scientists

Prof. Javier Sanchez Canizares, Science, Reason and Faith Group, University of Navarra

Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J.,, Vatican Observatory

Rev. Thomas Davenport, O.P., Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum)

Prof. Paolo Facchi, University of Bari

Rev. Ambrose Little, O.P., Director of the Thomistic Institute, DC

Prof. Fr. Matthieu Raffray, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum)

Prof. Luis Sanchez-Soto, University of Madrid

Prof. Valerio Scarani, National Univeristy of Singapore 

Prof. William Simpson, Ohio State University and University of Oxford

Prof. Fernando Sols, University of Madrid

Prof. Mark Spencer, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota

Prof. Fr. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Founder of the DISF Center, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

Rev. Robert Verril, O.P., Blackfriars Priory & Studium, Oxford

Prof. Fr. Alex Yeung, LC, Director of Science and Faith Institute, Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum

Prof. Vincenzo Tamma, Founding Director of the Quantum Science and Technology Hub, University of Portsmouth

Prof. Joseph Yost, Senior Vice Provost for Research, The Catholic University of America

 

Agenda

AGENDA FOR JULY 12,13,14,15
                                                      LOCATION: Chapman University


Sunday July 12

3:00 PM - Public Talk with Professor Tanzella-Nitti

5:00 PM - Mass at Chapman Fish Interfaith

Monday July 13

8:00 AM - Mass 

8:45 AM – Light Breakfast 

9:10 AM – Opening Remarks 

Matt Parlow or Daniele Struppa

9:20 AM - Opening Discussion and Conference Intentions ( Organizers )

9:30 AM – Fr. Tanzella Nitti, Present and Future of Academic Dialogue on Science and Theology

10:10 AM – Prof. Fernando Sols, Poincaré, Heisenberg, Gödel, Bell: discovering science fundamental limits

10:50 AM – Coffee Break

11:10 AM – Prof. Paolo Facchi, Quantum Mechanics and the Structure of Reality: Scientific Insights for a Theological Dialogue

11:50 AM – Rev. Robert Verrill, On Hylomorphism and the Meaning of Light

12:30 PM – Lunch

2:00 PM – Prof. Mark Spencer, Analogy, Aesthetic Method, and Theories of Quantum Mechanics, Freedom, and Providence

2:40 PM – Coffee Break

3:00 PM – Rev. Ambrose Little, O.P. , Act, Potency, and Quantum Indeterminacy: A New Thomistic Proposal

3:40 PM – Prof. William Simpson, Quantum Hylomorphism — Beyond the Copenhagen Interpretation

4:20 PM – Prof. Vincenzo Tamma, Quantum Foundations of Multiphoton Interference and its openings for a philosophical and theological dialogue

5:00 PM – Adoration 

6:00 PM – Dinner 

 

Tuesday, July 14

 8:00 AM – Mass 

8:45 AM – Light Breakfast 

9:10 AM – Prof. Valerio Scarani, Bell Nonlocality: The Bare Minimum

9:50 AM - Prof. Fr. Matthieu Raffray, Does Quantum Entanglement Disqualify Substance Ontology? Non-Separability, Local Realism, and Ontological Dependence after John Bell

10:30 AM – Coffee Break

10:45 AM – Br. Guy Consolmagno , Why Do I Believe in Science?

11:25 AM – Prof. Joseph Yost, From Leo XIII to Leo XIV: continuity in responses to multiple emerging technological revolutions

12:05 PM – Lunch

1:35 PM – Prof. Javier Sanchez Cañizares, Beyond Physical Closure: Re-envisioning Immaterial Causality in a Scientific Age

2:15 PM – Coffee Break

2:30 PM – Fr.Thomas Davenport ,Quid est Lux: Where Does Electromagnetic Radiation Fit in a Thomistic View of Nature?

3:10 PM – Prof. Steve Barr , Why quantum mechanics is consistent with a realist
philosophy of science, but not with materialism

3:50 PM – Discussion (Invited Speakers Only)

5:20 PM – TLM 

6:00 PM – Dinner

 

Wednesday, July 15

8:00 AM – Mass 

8:45 AM – Light Breakfast 

9:30 AM – Prof. Fr. Alex Yeung, Metaphysical Use of Quantum Mechanical Metaphors: Indetermination, Configuration Space, and Correlation

10:10 AM – Prof. Luis Sanchez Soto , Revisiting causal inference in quantum mechanics

10:50 AM – Coffee Break

11:10 AM – Business Planning (Invited Speakers Only)

12:20 PM – Lunch

Afternoon – Beach Events and Discussions

6:00 PM – Dinner