Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. He was a researcher at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught University Physics at Lafayette College before entering the Jesuits in 1989.
Br. Consolmagno’s research at the Vatican Observatory explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He has observed Kuiper Belt comets with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona and curated the Vatican meteorite collection. Along with more than 100 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), Worlds Apart: A Textbook in Planetary Sciences (with Martha Schaefer), and Brother Astronomer.
Br. Consolmagno has served on the governing boards of the Meteoritical Society. He is the past president of the International Astronomical Union, Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) and secretary of Division III (Planetary Systems Sciences), and currently, chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. In 2009, he held the Loyola Chair for visiting Jesuit scholars at Fordham University.