Faith & Science Symposium to feature Astronaut Clayton Anderson

(Hastings, Nebraska) – Hastings College and First Presbyterian Church are hosting the second annual Sachtleben-Throckmorton Faith & Science Symposium this week. The featured speaker is Clayton “Astro Clay” Anderson, a 1981 Hastings College graduate who is Nebraska’s first and only astronaut. 

The symposium includes several opportunities for the community and students to engage with Anderson about his own professional accomplishments and the intersection between faith and science.

On Friday, April 25 at 10:00am, Anderson will give a public lecture and presentation at French Memorial Chapel (800 N. Turner Avenue). This talk is free and open to the public.

In the afternoon, Anderson will have lunch with science and religion students. He will then continue the conversation about faith and science with Hastings College students and members of the Board of Trustees.

On Sunday, April 27, Anderson will participate in several events at First Presbyterian Church (621 N. Lincoln Avenue) in Hastings. At 9:15 a.m., Anderson will participate in an adult education panel with religion professor Dr. Dorothy Dean and biology professor Dr. Amanda Solem. At the 10:30 a.m. worship service, he will offer a reflection.

Then at 3:00 p.m., Anderson will give the concluding lecture of the symposium in the church sanctuary. This talk is free and open to the public.

The Sachtleben-Throckmorton Faith & Science Symposium is designed to explore the ways faith and science are complementary, and how God has woven faith and science together in beautiful and creative ways.

About Anderson
Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Anderson graduated from Hastings College with a degree in physics in 1981 — and dreams of becoming an astronaut. He went to Iowa State University and received a masters degree in aerospace engineering, and eventually landed at NASA.

He worked in various departments at NASA before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1998. He launched into space on June 8, 2007, aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis with the crew of STS-117. He spent 167 days in space between that and a second mission in 2010 as part of STS-131 and executed six spacewalks.

He retired from NASA in 2013 after three decades as an engineer and astronaut. Anderson is CEO of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum near Ashland, Nebraska, his hometown. He has written five books about space and his experiences, including three for children.

About the Symposium
The Sachtleben-Throckmorton Faith & Science Symposium is inspired and funded by Dr. Clyde Sachtleben, Hastings College emeritus professor of physics, and named after Sachtleben and his colleague, the late Dr. Carl Throckmorton, who taught mathematics and physics at Hastings College from 1963 to 1995.

When Sachtleben was teaching physics and astronomy, he would teach about the big bang theory and the origins of the universe. Students would sometimes question how he reconciles the scientific consensus of the age of the earth being 4.5 billion years old with creation stories in the Bible.

Sachtleben said he took great joy in explaining how he perceives that faith and science are complementary, and the marvelous way that God placed the planet earth at just the right distance from the sun to sustain human life, and then endowed humanity with the wisdom to study and learn about these things.

The steering committee for the symposium includes:

Dr. Clyde Sachtleben, professor emeritus of physics, Hastings College
Dr. Amanda Solem, professor of biology, Hastings College
Dr. Dorothy Dean, professor of religion, Hastings College
Rev. Damen Jensen-Heitmann, associate pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Hastings
Rev. Greg Allen-Pickett, senior pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Hastings
Dr. Dan Deffenbaugh, associate dean of arts and sciences at Central Community College and Scholar in Residence at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings
Dr. Rich Lloyd, president of Hastings College