Menas, Kafatos, Ph.D.

Member of the Board of Directors

Menas Kafatos was born in Irakleion, Crete, Greece and moved to the U.S. to obtain bachelors and doctorate degrees. He is the Founding Dean of the Schmid College of Science & Technology at Chapman University (as of June 1, 2009); Vice Chancellor for Special Projects; Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics. At George Mason University, he was University Professor; Director, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research (CEOSR), and Dean of the College of Science.

Menas Kafatos, physicist, received his B.A. in Physics from Cornell University and his Ph.D.in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he joined George Mason University and was University Professor of Interdisciplinary Sciences there from 1984-2008. He also served as Dean of the School of Computational Sciences and was Director of the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research. He and a team of computational scientists joined Chapman University in fall, 2008.

He has 36 years experience in undergraduate and graduate Earth systems science, natural hazards and climate change, remote sensing and data information systems, physics, computational and theoretical astrophysics, astronomy, and foundations in quantum theory. He has published numerous books including The Conscious Universe, The Non-local Universe (with Robert Nadeau, Springer-Verlag), Principles of Integrative Science (with Mihai Draganescu, Romanian Academy of Sciences Press), and more than 250 refereed articles, book chapters, etc. on computational science, astrophysics, earth systems science, hazards and global change, general relativity, cosmology, foundations of quantum theory, and consciousness.

He is also interested in the dialogue between science and philosophy and he has had a relevant essay published in the Washington Post. He is recipient of the Spirit of Rustum Roy award from the Chopra Foundation for his work in consciousness and advancing human interests.  He is listed in Wikipedia. Some of his current research efforts can be seen at: http://forecast.chapman.edu or www.chapman.edu/scs