On questions at the center of science and religion and Pollack’s establishment of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at Columbia University

(1:30 min)

On how his faith informs Pollack’s work at the Center for the Study of Science and Religion

(6:20 min)

Pollack describes the conclusion of his public discourse with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (also featured in Jewish Sages of Today) in which he asks how he can honor his difficult parents

(2:02 min)

“The Price of Science Without Moral Constraints: German and American Medicine Before DNA and Today,”May 2005

Presented at the annual Humboldt University Faculty of Theology symposium on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A German theologian and pastor, Bonhoeffer was one of the first voices of resistance to Hitler. He actively participated in the German resistance movement against the Nazi party and was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was ultimately arrested and was executed by hanging at the Flossenburg concentration camp two weeks before liberation. In this lecture, Pollack emphasizes the importance of “taking a stand in public against egregious misinterpretations of the results of science” and “acknowledging that truth aloud, while there is still time and freedom to do so.”

“Photography Changes our Relationship to Time, the Unknown and to Ourselves”

Published on Click! Photography Changes Everything, Smithsonian Photography Initiative website. Pollack considers how images that stop the flow of time reflect aspects of both scientific prediction and religious revelation and warns us not to make a religion out of DNA and other scientific evidence.

The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: Order, Meaning, and Free Will in Modern Science

(Columbia University Press, 2000)

The Missing Moment: How the Unconscious Shapes Modern Science

(Houghton Mifflin, 1999)

Signs of Life: The Language and Meanings of DNA

(Houghton Mifflin, 1994) note: winner of the Lionel Trilling Award

Editor, Readings in Mammalian Cell Culture
(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1973)

Editor with S. Hellman and M. Oxman, Biohazards in Biological Research
(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1973)

Co-author with S. Pfeiffer, S., Animal Cell Culture Cell Manual
(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1970)

Editor, Love and its Obstacles, proceedings of the first annual Fetzer Institute Symposium
(2007)

Editor, CommonGround, proceedings of the fourth annual Fetzer Institute Symposium
(2009)

Best Practice: Science to End Poverty
(Columbia University Press)

Co-author with Amy Pollack, The Grand Prince
(children’s book)

Pollack’s faculty biography, Columbia University

Pollack began his association with Columbia University as a student in the Columbia College Class of 1961. Since 1978, he has been on the faculty as professor of biological sciences. He also served as dean of Columbia College from 1982-1989.

Center for the Study of Science and Religion: The Earth Institute at Columbia University

Pollack is founder and director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR), established in 1999. The CSSR is a forum for the examination of issues that lie at the boundary of these two complementary ways of comprehending the world and our place in it.

Union Theological Seminary

Pollack has been an adjunct professor for science and religion at the Union Theological Seminary since 2002. Its vision for theological education is to center ministerial training in an urban context so that academic excellence and personal faith might respond to the needs of the city.

Video and transcript of comprehensive interview of Pollack by Robert Wright

(click here for transcript)
The topics covered in this thought-provoking interview for Slate.com’s meaningoflife.tv include faith and reason, religion as pathology, the problem of evil, and being good without God. (48:57 min)

Board and leadership positions
Pollack has served on more than twenty boards, including academic, corporate, and editorial boards; a selection is listed below. For a full listing, click here see his curriculum vitae.

Since 2002 Pollack has served as senior editor of the Columbia University Press Series of Books on Science and Religion

Since 1999 Pollack has chaired the Katzki award committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a literature award in memory of Herbert Katzki.

From 1999 to 2010, Pollack was a member of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel board of directors.

From 2003 to 2008, Pollack served on the board of directors of Congregation Ramath Orah in Manhattan.