Ian Horner Hutchinson (7 June 1951) is a nuclear engineer and physicist who is currently Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has made a number of important contributions to the fields of

nuclear engineering Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of breaking down atomic nuclei ( fission) or of combining atomic nuclei (fusion), or with the application of other sub-atomic processes based on the principles of n ...

and nuclear physics and has also written about the philosophy of science and the relationship between religion and science.

Education and nuclear research

Hutchinson received his B.A. in physics from Cambridge University in 1972. He then received his Ph.D in Engineering Physics from Australian National University in 1976, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. After receiving his Ph.D Hutchinson performed experimental research on one of the earliest tokamaks to be operated outside of the Soviet Union. He engaged in further research at MIT during its first major tokamak research initiative, before doing research for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. He returned to MIT in 1983 as a faculty member in the Nuclear Engineering Department, and served as the Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics and Engineering from 2003 to 2009. Hutchinson has authored more than 160 journal articles on plasma phenomena and nuclear fusion. He was the 2008 Chairman of the Division of Plasma Physics group of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, of which he had been elected a fellow in 1988. He is author of the standard monograph on measuring plasmas, ''Principles of Plasma Diagnostics''.

Science and religion

Hutchinson has authored a book on the philosophy of science, arguing against

scientism Scientism is the opinion that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...

. Hutchinson is a contributor to the BioLogos Foundation and has written and spoken on the relationship between science and religion, arguing that religious belief, and belief in Christianity in particular, can be perfectly reconciled with science. He has spoken at the Veritas Forum on the topic of miracles, debating atheist philosophy professor Donald Hubin. He has also argued against New Atheism.

TtH

Hutchinson is the author of the computer program TtH, a TeX to HTML translator, a popular program for web-publishing of mathematics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, Ian Horner 1951 births Living people MIT School of Engineering faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge Australian National University alumni American Christians 21st-century American physicists 21st-century Christians Critics of atheism Fellows of the American Physical Society