José Gabriel Funes

José Gabriel Funes, S.J. (born January 31, 1963 in Córdoba) is an Argentine Jesuit priest and astronomer. He was the Director of the Vatican Observatory from August 19, 2006 until September 18, 2015, when he was succeeded by Pope Francis's appointment of the Reverend Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J.[1][2] Funes serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

José Gabriel Funes
BornJanuary 31, 1963 (1963-01-31) (age 58)
 ARG Córdoba
Scientific career
Fieldsastrophysics
InstitutionsVatican Observatory

Biography

He has a master's degree in Astronomy from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina and a doctorate from the University of Padua in Italy. He also has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from University del Salvador in Argentina and a bachelor's degree in theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. A member of the Society of Jesus, he was ordained a priest in 1995. He joined the Vatican Observatory as a researcher in 2000, and was named its director on August 19, 2006 replacing Fr. George Coyne.

Selected Papers

Funes has published approximately 30 refereed papers, mostly on the morphology and dynamics of galaxies.

Author Title Journal Year
LAPASSET E. and FUNES J.G. The peculiar behaviour of the photometric variability of V508 Ophiuchi. Astrophys. Space Sci., 113, 83-87 1985
CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., FUNES J.G., VEGA BELTRAN J.C. and BERTOLA F. The circumnuclear ring of ionized gas in NGC 3593. Astron. Astrophys., 337, 80-84 1998
VEGA BELTRAN J.C., ZEILINGER W.W., AMICO P., SCHULTHEIS M., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., BECKMAN J. and BERTOLA F. Mixed early and late-type properties in the bar of NGC 6221: Evidence for evolution along the Hubble sequence? Astron. Astrophys., Suppl. Ser., 131, 105-114 1998
BERTOLA F., CAPPELLARI M., FUNES J.G., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A. and VEGA BELTRAN J.C. Circumnuclear Keplerian disks in galaxies. Astrophys. J., 509, L93-L96 1998
CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., SARZI M., CINZANO P., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., FUNES J.G., BERTOLA F., PERSIC M. and SALUCCI P. Dark matter in early-type spiral galaxies: the case of NGC 2179 and of NGC 2775. Astron. Astrophys., 342, 671-686 1999
BERTOLA F., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., PIZZELLA A., SARZI M., CAPPELLARI M. and FUNES J.G. The bulge-disk orthogonal decoupling in galaxies: NGC 4698. Astrophys. J., 519, L127-L130 1999
SARZI M., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., CAPPELLARI M., FUNES J.G. and BERTOLA F. NGC 4672: A new case of an early-type disk galaxy with an orthogonally decoupled core. Astron. Astrophys., 360, 439-446 2000
FUNES J.G. and CORSINI E.M. Galaxy disks and disk galaxies. (Conference highlights). Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 112, 1510–1511 2000
VEGA BELTRAN J.C., PIZZELLA A., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., ZEILINGER W.W., BECKMAN J.E. and BERTOLA F. Kinematic properties of gas and stars in 20 disc galaxies. Astron. Astrophys., 374, 394-411 2001
VENNIK J., FUNES J.G., RAFANELLI P. and RICHTER G.M. Structure of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mkn 955. Astron. Gesellschaft Abstract Ser., 18, 210-210 2001
SARZI M., BERTOLA F., CAPPELLARI M., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., PIZZELLA A. and VEGA BELTRAN J.C. The orthogonal bulge-disc decoupling in NGC 4698. Astrophys. Space Sci., 276, 467-473 2001
VEGA BELTRAN J.C., ZEILINGER W.W., PIZZELLA A., CORSINI E.M., BERTOLA F., FUNES J.G. and BECKMAN J.E. Kinematics of gas and stars in 20 disc galaxies. Astrophys. Space Sci., 276, 1201–1210 2001
PIGNATELLI E., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., BECKMAN J.E., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., SCARLATA C., BERTOLA F., FUNES J.G. and ZEILINGER W.W. Modeling gas and stellar kinematics in disc galaxies NGC 772, NGC 3898 and NGC 7782. Astrophys. Space Sci. Suppl., 277, 493-494 2001
PIGNATELLI E., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., SCARLATA C., PIZZELLA A., FUNES J.G., ZEILINGER W.W., BECKMAN J.E. and BERTOLA F. Modelling gaseous and stellar kinematics in the disc galaxies NGC 772, 3898 and 7782. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 323, 188-210 2001
PIZZELLA A., BERTOLA F., SARZI M., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., CAPPELLARI M. and FUNES J.G. NGC 4672: a new case of an early-type disk galaxy with an orthogonally decoupled core. Mem. Soc. Astron. Ital., 72, 797-800 2001
FUNES J.G. Kinematics of the ionized gas in the inner regions of disk galaxies. (Dissertation summary). Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 113, 257-257 2001
FUNES J.G., CORSINI E.M., CAPPELLARI M., PIZZELLA A., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., SCARLATA C. and BERTOLA F. Position-velocity diagrams of ionized gas in the inner regions of disk galaxies. Astron. Astrophys., 388, 50-67 2002
FUNES J.G., REJKUBA M., MINNITI D., AKIYAMA S. and KENNICUTT R.C. Star formation in the disk of NGC 5128. American Astron. Soc. meeting, 201, #20.23 2002
COCCATO L., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., MORELLI L., FUNES J.G. and BERTOLA F. Minor-axis velocity gradients in disk galaxies'. Astron. Astrophys., 416, 507-514 2004
LEE J.C., KENNICUTT R.C., FUNES J.G., SAKAI S., TREMONTI C.A. and VAN ZEE L. 11HUGS: The 11 Mpc H-{alpha} and ultraviolet galaxy survey. American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #60.04 2004
KENNICUTT R.C., LEE J.C., AKIYAMA S., FUNES J.G. and SAKAI S. An H-{alpha} imaging survey of galaxies in the local 11 Mpc volume. American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #60.05 2004
KRALL C. and FUNES J.G. H-alpha and UBR imaging of elliptical galaxies with dust lanes. American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #92.04 2004
MINNITI D., REJKUBA M., FUNES J.G. and AKIYAMA S. Optical counterparts of X-ray point sources observed by Chandra in NGC 5128: 20 new globular cluster X-ray sources. Astrophys. J., 600, 716-728 2004
MINNITI D., REJKUBA M., FUNES J.G. and KENNICUTT R.C.Jr The most exciting massive binary cluster in NGC 5128: clues to the formation of globular clusters. Astrophys. J., 612, 215-221 2004
VILLEGAS D., MINNITI D. and FUNES J.G. HST photometry of the binary globular cluster Sersic 13N-S in NGC 5128. Astron. Astrophys., 442, 437-442 2005
GUTIERREZ C.M., ALONSO M.S., FUNES J.G. and RIBEIRO M.B. Star formation in satellite galaxies. Astron. J., 132, 596-607 2006
LEE J.C., KENNICUTT R.C., FUNES J.G., SAKAI S. and AKIYAMA S. The star formation demographics of galaxies in the Local Volume. Astrophys. J., 671, L113-L116 2007

Extraterrestrials
See also: original sin

In an interview in May 2008[3][4] he stated that the possible existence of intelligent extraterrestrials did not contradict church teaching[5][6] and ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.[7] He has speculated that such alien life forms could even be “free from Original Sin … [remaining] in full friendship with their creator.”[8]

See also
  • List of Jesuit scientists
  • List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References
  1. http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2015/09/18/0689/01528.html
  2. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/BV.aspx?ref=IE8Activity&a=http%3A%2F%2Fpress.vatican.va%2Fcontent%2Fsalastampa%2Fit%2Fbollettino%2Fpubblico%2F2015%2F09%2F18%2F0689%2F01528.html
  3. "L'extraterrestre è mio fratello" L'Osservatore romano, 14 May 2008 Full text of the original interview (in Italian) conserved on the Vatican's Website
  4. Full text of L'Osservatore Romano interview translated into English.
  5. L'Osservatore Romano: The extraterrestrial is my brother, Vatican astronomer says believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.
  6. Willey, David (13 May 2008). "Vatican says aliens could exist". BBC. Retrieved 13 May 2008.
  7. "It's OK To Believe in Aliens". Associated Press. 13 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  8. mental_floss Blog » “Aliens Are Our Brothers,” says Vatican Archived 2008-05-19 at the Wayback Machine.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
George Coyne		 Director of the Vatican Observatory
2006 - 2015		 Succeeded by
Guy Consolmagno
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