Don is a physicist who can’t seem to lose his faith. He grew up in non-denominational, charismatic, evangelical churches, then, in high school, discovered mainline denominational Christianity. Perpetually a deep thinker, he was frustrated with the anti-intellectualism of his childhood faith and knew there had to be more.
Fast-forward a few years to being a newlywed at a liberal seminary where his wife was pursuing her MDiv, and while finishing his BS in Physics (Math minor), Don read her textbooks for fun. He finished his MS in Physics, then started work as a research scientist in missile defense and consulted in ballistic forensics while pursuing his PhD, stopping before the dissertation when the first of his two children were born. After working in reliability engineering for the Space Shuttle program until its end, Don started teaching Physics at the local university.
All the while he was involved with his wife’s campus ministry and the local Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation they attend, serving as an elder and running the audiovisual ministry, teaching the occasional Sunday School class, and dragging some academic rigor into dangerous territory for some.
For the past several years, Don has been working in vaccine research. His love for learning and hunger for new knowledge drives his approach to faith, and his faith steers his love for humanity in all of its diversity.
tldr: Don is a scientist who still believes in God, and a generalist who has a wide variety of experiences that have informed his faith and, more importantly, vice versa.
