MIT Professor Ian Hutchinson will represent the MIT Free Speech Alliance (MFSA) at next week’s Heterodox Academy Conference, where he’ll speak on an MFSA-sponsored panel exploring a timely question: Can STEM help restore academia’s reputation?
He’s one of the rare voices in academia who’s equally fluent in high-level science and personal faith. A plasma physicist and fusion researcher, Hutchinson shared how his colleagues have responded to his spiritual commitments:
“People in the sciences do recognize that it’s perfectly possible to be a committed Christian… and to be a first-rate plasma physicist or a first-rate fusion researcher.”
He says most of his colleagues are very comfortable with his beliefs. “I’m not forever grasping them by the lapels and saying, ‘Are you saved, brother?’” he joked. But he’s open about his Christianity, and that openness has invited students and professors alike to come to him for guidance, sometimes even prayer.
He also mentioned something quietly remarkable: at the American Physical Society’s plasma physics meetings, there’s a regular early-morning gathering of Christian physicists—a kind of informal plasma Christian fellowship.
So no, Hutchinson isn’t alone. And no, faith and reason aren’t incompatible. His presence on that Heterodox panel is timely—because if STEM is going to restore trust in academia, voices like his will be essential: principled, humble, and unafraid to live with integrity across all domains of life.
P.S. – Professor Hutchinson has even written a book directly on this subject: Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?
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