Meteoric Jesuit

UCF professor wins fellowship to research meteorites
By: Jonathan Hohensee
Posted: 7/7/08

Robert Macke, who is currently a Ph.D candidate in physics at UCF, recently won a Smithsonian Institution Graduate Student Fellowship award to research meteorites during this summer at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. The fellowship, which is offered through the Smithsonian's Office of Research and Training Services, will enable Macke to study the physical properties of meteorites, studying the meteorites' densities, porosity and susceptibility to magnetic fields. Macke hopes that his study of the meteorites will help give him insight to the early history of the solar system during the time when the materials that made up the meteorites where formed."There are two main reasons why this fellowship is important to me," Macke said. "First, through it I have access to the Smithsonian meteorite collection for my research. Second, the fellowship is somewhat prestigious, and thus increases the status of the research I am doing. Hopefully, this will make it easier for curators of other large meteorite collections to allow me to perform research on their samples." Meteorites are natural objects from space that fall onto the Earth or another celestial body. According to the Meteoritical Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the research and the education of the planetary sciences, there are currently 34,553 named meteorites on Earth. Macke's academic history is long and spans four different colleges.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Macke then went on to the Saint Louis University where he earned a master's degree in physics. Instead of perusing a Ph.D after earning his master's, Macke instead became a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, a more than 400-year-old religious order within the Catholic Church, which concentrates on several aspects of service work, including higher education.

According to Macke, being a member of the Society for Jesus opened many doors for him both personally and academically."What I found was that, as a Jesuit, I my life is much more integrated than it was before," said Macke. "In the past, I had felt that my work life and my prayer life operated in two separate realms. Now, work and prayer (and everything else) all fit into one cohesive whole."Academically, the Society of Jesus has always been known for its education. Jesuits are very well trained, especially in philosophy and theology but also in many diverse areas of specialty," Macke said.

After becoming part of the Society of Jesus, Macke went on to earn a master's degree in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis and then went on to observe the Vatican Observatory's meteorite collection in Italy.

It was at the Vatican Observatory where Macke met Dan Britt, an associate professor of physics and director of UCF's Robinson Observatory. It was Britt - who had previously won a fellowship for the Smithsonian - who convinced Macke to come to UCF. Macke said that his Jesuit superiors fully support his attempts to achieve a Ph.D at UCF, and that after he achieves his degree he plans to get an academic degree in theology.

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