Taner Edis

CURRICULUM VITAE

Department of Physics
Truman State University
Kirksville, MO 63501
(660) 785-4583
(660) 785-7604 (fax)
edis@truman.edu
edis.sites.truman.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D. (Physics) December 1994
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Dissertation: Theoretical Analysis of Josephson Junction Systems and Superconducting Superlattices
Thesis Advisor: Prof. Kishin Moorjani
M.A. (Physics) 1989
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
B.S. Highest Honors (Computer Engineering) 1987
B.S. Highest Honors (Physics) 1987
Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Academic

Truman State University

Professor of Physics (2011 – present)
Associate Professor of Physics (2005 – 2011)
Assistant Professor of Physics (2000 – 2005)
Taught: Quantum Mechanics, Mathematical Methods, Engineering Thermodynamics, College Physics, Concepts in Physics, Statics, Physics Seminar, Junior Seminar.
Developed and taught: “Weird Science” Junior Interdisciplinary Seminar, Computer Programming for Physics.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Atmospheric Science Division

Participating Guest (2000 – 2008)
Model development work on IMPACT, LLNL’s global 3D atmospheric model.
Summer Faculty (1998 and 1999)
Modeling aerosol and cloud effects on radiation transfer.

Southern University, Department of Physics

Research Associate (1998 – 2000)
Improved an atmospheric model developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Instructor (1998 – 2000)
Classical Mechanics, Introductory Modern Physics, Earth Science.
Research Associate (1996 – 1998)
MD simulations of high-temperature superconducting cuprate structure.

Iowa State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Temporary Instructor (1994 – 1995)
Introductory physics lab, Advanced Electromagnetism.

The Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory

APL Fellow in Science and Engineering (1991 – 1994)
Theoretical and computational research on the statistical mechanics and magnetic behavior of Josephson-coupled granular superconducting systems.

The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Research Assistant (1990 – 1991)
YBCO/PrBCO superlattices; Hubbard model.
Teaching Assistant (1987 – 1990)
General Physics recitations and labs.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division

“Collaborator” (Summer 1989)
Theoretical research on anyon superconductivity.

CERN, Geneva

Summer Student (1986)
Programming support in the design of the Large Electron-Positron Collider.

Service & Administration

Associate Editor (Physics and Astronomy), Reports of the National Center for Science Education

Truman State University

Physics Department
Webmaster, colloquium series organizer, High School Academic Festival (2003-2007), . . .
School of Science and Mathematics
Science and Mathematics Distinguished Speaker series committee chair (2012-present), Step application reviewer (2006-2009), Promotion and Tenure committee (2006).
University
Truman Faculty Research Conference organizing committee (2009–2015; Chair 2010–present), Global Issues Colloquium committee (2006-present), Missouri Department of Higher Education Curriculum Alignment Initiative (2007-2011), Director of Interdisciplinary Studies screening committee (2007), Diversity Institute Fellow (2003-2004).
Student organizations advised
Society of Physics Students (2001-present), Sigma Pi Sigma honor society (2001-present), Freethinkers Society (2002-2007; 2009–2015), Truman Club Soccer (2007-2015), Truman Club Basketball (2010-2015).

Southern University

Conference Secretary (1998 – 1999)
For the Second International Conference on New Theories, Discoveries, and Applications of Superconductors and Related Materials, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 1-4, 1999.
Conference Secretary (1997 – 1998)
For the First International Conference on New Theories, Discoveries, and Applications of Superconductors and Related Materials, Baton Rouge, LA, February 19-24, 1998.

International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics (located at Iowa State University)

Research and Educational Resources Project Coordinator (1994 – 1996)
Resource assistance for physicists based in Central American countries.

The Johns Hopkins University

Co-organizer, 1991 Johns Hopkins University Graduate Representative Organization Symposium; “Science in the 1990’s.”

Student Research Projects

The arrow of time (2016 – present)
Nicholas Kronlage (2016-present).
Wigner functions as currents (2011 – 2015)
Robert Ashcraft and Dispesh Niraula (2012-2013) for their research requirement, leading to Undergraduate Research Conference presentations. Destry Newton (2012-2015), Nathan Engle (2014-2015), and Katherine Maxwell (2014-2015).
Random walks in phase space (2008 – 2011)
Adam Vogt (2008-09), Joey Palmer (2009-10), Om Goit (2010-11), leading to Undergraduate Research Conference presentations. Also Kevin Satzinger, Vijay Koju, Miguel Fernandez Flores, and Robert Ashcraft (2010-11, 2011-12) on related independent research.
Discrete spacetime computational physics project (2002 -2007)
M. Hannon, M. Wright, J. Johnson, M. Molitoris, O. Ikechukwu, A. Bezinovich, A. Smolik, J. Park. Undergraduate Research Conference presentations, 2003 2007.
Atmospheric Physics (2001 - 2002)
Jessica Rolwes. Joined me at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, summer 2001.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Sonja Brentjes, Taner Edis, and Lutz Richter-Bernburg, eds., 1001 Distortions: How (Not) to Narrate History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in Non-Western Cultures (Würtzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2016).
Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, and the Uneasy Relationship with the Secular West (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2016).
An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2007). Selected as one of 250 “central texts in the ﬁeld of science and religion” by the International Society for Science and Religion.
Science and Nonbelief (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006). Part of the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion; Richard Olson, series editor. Paperback edition by Prometheus Books, 2007.
Matt Young and Taner Edis, eds., Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004). Includes chapters “Grand Themes, Narrow Constituency” and “Chance and Necessity — and Intelligent Design?”
The Ghost In the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2002). Recipient of the Morris D. Forkosch award for “best humanist book of 2002” from the Council for Secular Humanism.

Philosophy and History of Science

T. Edis and M. Boudry, “Truth and consequences: when is it rational to accept falsehoods?” accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognition and Culture.
“Two Cheers for Scientism,” in Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci, eds., Science Unlimited? The Challenges of Scentism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018).
“From Creationism to Economics: How Far Should Analyses of Pseudoscience Extend?” Mètode Science Studies Journal 95 59-65 (2017); DOI: 10.7203/metode.8.10001.
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Flights of Fancy: The ‘1001 Inventions’ Exhibition and Popular Misrepresentations of Medieval Muslim Science and Technology,” in S. Brentjes, T. Edis, and L. Richter-Bernburg, eds., 1001 Distortions (Würtzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2016).
“Finding an Enemy: Islam and the New Atheism,” in Ruqayya Khan, ed., Muhammad in the Digital Age, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015).
T. Edis and M. Boudry, “Beyond Physics? On the Prospects of Finding a Meaningful Oracle,” Foundations of Science 19:4 403-422 (2014); DOI: 10.1007/s10699-014-9349-z.
T. Edis and S. BouJaoude, “Rejecting Materialism: Responses to Modern Science in the Muslim Middle East,” in Michael R. Matthews, ed., International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Volume III (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014).
“Atheism and the Rise of Science,” in Stephen Bullivant and Michael Ruse, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Atheism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
“Defending Science and Nonbelief,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 40:4 14 16 (2011).
“Modern Science and Conservative Islam: An Uneasy Relationship,” Science and Education 18:6-7 885-903 (2009). Also published as a chapter in Michael R. Matthews, ed., Science, Worldviews and Education (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009).
“Religion: Accident or Design?,” in Joseph Bulbulia et al, eds., The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques (Santa Margarita: Collins Foundation Press, 2008).
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Biology and ‘Created Nature’: Gender and the Body in Popular Islamic Literature from Modern Turkey and the West,” Arab Studies Journal 12:2/13:1 140-58 (2005).
A.S. Bix and T. Edis, “Museum Review: The Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Istanbul,” Technology and Culture, 45:3 590-96 (2004).
“How Gödel’s Theorem Supports the Possibility of Machine Intelligence,” Minds and Machines, 8 251-62 (1998).

Physics

T. Edis, K.E. Grant, and P. Cameron-Smith, “Stratospheric Relaxation in IMPACT’s Radiation Code,” LLNL Technical Report UCRL-TR-226128 (2006).
T. Edis, K.E. Grant, and P.J. Cameron-Smith, “Update on the Radiation Code in IMPACT: Clouds, Heating Rates, and Comparisons,” LLNL Technical Report UCRL-TR-215001 (2005).
T. Edis, P.J. Cameron-Smith, K.E. Grant, D. Bergmann, and C.C. Chuang, “Testing IMPACT’s Radiation Code,” LLNL Technical Report UCRL-TR-205281 (2004).
D.S. Guo, R.R. Freeman, L. Gao, X. Li, P. Fu, T. Edis and A. Troha, “Spin-other-orbit Effect of Photon Modes,” Journal of Physics B, 34:15 2983-91 (2001).
T. Edis, J.D. Fan, D. Bagayoko and J.T. Wang, “A Two-dimensional Structure Factor Calculation for the Cu-1 Plane in YBa₂Cu₃O₆,” International Journal of Modern Physics B, 12:29-31 3091 (1999).
J.D. Fan, T. Edis, G.L. Zhao and Y.M. Malozovsky, “Molecular-dynamics-simulation Study of the Two-dimensional Lattice Structure of the Cu-1 plane in YBa₂Cu₃O_6+x ,” Physical Review B, 56:17 10747 (1997).
T. Edis and K. Moorjani, “The Weak Link Magnetically Modulated Resistance Response in Granular Superconducting Systems,” Physical Review B, 51:2 1124 (1995).
“Unusual Constraints in the Quantum Statistical Mechanics of Josephson Junction Systems,” Journal of Statistical Physics, 71 313 (1993).
M. Rasolt, T. Edis and Z. Tesanovic, “Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition and Charge Redistribution in the Superconductivity of YBCO/PBCO Superlattices,” Physical Review Letters, 66 2927 (1991).

Critiques of Creationism and Intelligent Design

“Muslim Resistance to Darwinian Evolution,” in J. Seckbach and R. Gordon, eds., Divine Action and Natural Selection: Science, Faith and Evolution (New Jersey: World Scientific, 2009).
“Harun Yahya’s Legal Troubles,” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 28:3 4-5 (2008).
“Islamic Creationism: A Short History,” History of Science Society Newsletter 37:1 14-15 (2008).
“Intelligent Design: A Blind Alley,” IslamOnline.net, September 2007.
“The Rise of Islamic Creationism,” International Humanist News, August 2007, 24-26.
“ABD’deki Yaratılışçı Akımlar ve Türkiye ile Bağlantıları,” Bilim ve Gelecek 39 14-20 (2007).
“Why ‘Intelligent Design’ is More Interesting than Old-fashioned Creationism,” Georgia Journal of Science 63:3 190-97 (2005).
“A World Designed by God: Science and Creationism in Contemporary Islam,” in Paul Kurtz, ed. Science and Religion: Are They Compatible? (Amherst: Prometheus, 2003).
“Creationism to Universal Darwinism: Evolution and Religion Today,” and “Harun Yahya and Islamic Creationism,” in Amanda Chesworth et al., eds. Darwin Day Collection One (Albuquerque: Tangled Bank, 2003).
“With Darwin in Mind: ‘Intelligent Design’ meets Artificial Intelligence,” Skeptical Inquirer, 25:2 35-39 (2001).
“Cloning Creationism in Turkey,” Reports of the National Center for Science Education, 19:6 30-35 (1999).
“Taking Creationism Seriously,” Skeptic, 6:2 56-65 (1998).
“Relativist Apologetics: The Future of Creationism,” Reports of the National Center for Science Education, 17:1 17-24 (1997).
“Islamic Creationism In Turkey,” Creation/Evolution, 34 1-12 (1994).

Book Reviews

“A Muslim Version of New Atheism,” Free Inquiry, 37:1 52-53 (2016). [Review of The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason by Ali A. Rizvi.]
A.S. Bix and T. Edis, “Trapped By Opportunity: Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and David Ashton, The Global Auction,” Technology and Culture, 54:1 170-174 (2013).
Review of Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line, by Jason Rosenhouse, Reports of the National Center for Science Education 32:5 4.1-3 (2012).
Review of Intelligent Design: Science or Religion? Critical Perspectives, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds., Reports of the National Center for Science Education 29:4 34-5 (2009).
“The Return of the Design Argument,” Philosophy Now 50 42 (2005). [Review of Debating Design edited by Dembski and Ruse, and The Hidden Face of God by Gerald Schroeder.]
Review of Defending Science—Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism by Susan Haack, Reports of the National Center for Science Education 24:3-4 54 (2004).
“Can Secular Philosophy Give Us Objective Morality?,” The Secular Web (online), March 2003. [Review of “Atheism, Morality, and Meaning” by M. Martin.]
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Tales of Hysteria,” Skeptical Inquirer, 21:5 52 (1997). [Review of “Hystories” by E. Showalter.]
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Bashing the Science-bashers,” Skeptical Inquirer, 19:2 46 (1995). [Review of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science by P.R. Gross and N. Levitt.]

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“The Universe is a Game of Dice,” Third Congress of Critical Thinking and Scientific Divulgation: Science and Ideology, University of València, Spain, March 6, 2018.
“Technological Progress and Pious Modernity: Secular Liberals Fall Behind the Times,” Institute for Humanist Studies 2014 Symposium, Houston, November 15, 2014.
“Two Cheers for Scientism,” Scientism Workshop, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, May 16, 2014.
“Flights of Fancy: The ‘1001 Inventions’ Exhibition and Popular Misrepresentations of Medieval Muslim Science and Technology,” 24th International Congress of History, Science, Technology and Medicine, Manchester, UK, July 27, 2013.
“Is There a Political Argument for Teaching Evolution?”, keynote address at the “Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change” conference in Trondheim, Norway, March 2, 2012.
“The Limits of Physics? Looking for Oracles,” Truman State University Faculty Research Conference, October 1, 2011.
Respondent, book review session on Science and Nonbelief, annual meeting of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Louisville, March 5, 2011.
“A Brief History of Islamic Creationism in Turkey,” annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington DC, February 18, 2011.
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Pseudoscience in the Periphery,” Science and Technology in the European Periphery conference at Galway, Ireland, June 19, 2010.
“Between Nasr and Ateş: What Understanding of Evolution do Science Educators Want?” Darwin and Evolution in the Muslim World Conference at Hampshire College, October 3, 2009.
“Islamic Creationism, Liberal Education, and the Privileged Position of Science,” Truman State University Faculty Research Conference, September 12, 2009.
“Rejecting Materialism: Muslim Responses to Conceptual Frameworks of Modern Science,” invited presentation at the McGill Symposium on Islam and Evolution, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, March 31, 2009.
“Religion: Accident or Design?” invited talk at The International Conference on the Evolution of Religion, Hawaii, January 7, 2007.
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “Islamic Creationism in Turkey: Historical and Intellectual Perspectives,” annual meeting of the History of Science Society in Vancouver, Canada, November 4, 2006.
“Chance and Necessity…and ‘Intelligent Design’?” invited talk at the Association of Southeastern Biologists Annual Meeting, April 15, 2005.
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “‘Fitra’ (Created Nature): Premodern Concepts of Gender Biology in Current Popular Islam,” International Society for the History Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology conference in Vienna, Austria, July 20, 2003.
“Intelligent Design: Bad Science, Bad Philosophy, or Both,” invited talk at the Council for Secular Humanism conference on ‘Secularism, Society, and Justice,’ April 12, 2003.
T. Edis and A.S. Bix, “The Incomplete Female and the Passive Egg: Premodern Concepts of Gendered Bodies in Current Popular Islam,” the 75th annual meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine, April 25-28, 2002.
“A World Designed by God: Science and Creationism in Contemporary Islam,” invited talk at the Center for Inquiry International Conference on ‘Science and Religion,’ Nov. 11, 2001.

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

“Cranks, Conspiracists, and Creationists: Weirdness in Conservative Muslim Environments,” CSICON 2017, Las Vegas, October 28, 2017.
“Can Secular Liberalism Accommodate Islam?” Global Issues Colloquium, Truman State University, January 26, 2017. Reasonfest, University of Kansas, April 15, 2017.
Panelist on “Islam’s contribution to the modern sciences,” Michigan State University, September 12, 2016.
“Kim korkar bilimcilikten?” BETIM, Istanbul University, Turkey, May 14, 2016.
“Einstein Variations: Pop culture and reality in physics, philosophy and religion,” Ghent University, Belgium, May 10, 2016. Physics Colloquium, Truman State University, October 26, 2016.
“Creation v. Evolution: The Muslim Debate,” Trinity University, San Antonio, February 9, 2012. Vrijzinnig Centrum Geuzenhuis, Ghent, Belgium, March 3, 2016.
“What would it take for a woo-woo idea to succeed?” and panelist on “How Should Philosophy of Science Inform Rational Skepticism,” The Amaz!ng Meeting 13, Las Vegas, NV, July 17 and 19, 2015.
“The Limits of Physics? On the Prospects of Finding a Meaningful Oracle,” Department of Physics, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, June 1, 2015.
“Religion and Politics in the Science Classroom,” Reasonfest, University of Kansas, April 20, 2013.
“The Science and Religion Debate in Modern Islam,” Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Lund University, Sweden, March 8, 2012.
“Can Science and Islam Coexist?”, Reasonfest, University of Kansas, February 12, 2012.
“Random Adventures in Physics and Weirdness,” Physics Department Colloquium at The University of Iowa, October 19, 2009. Truman Physics Colloquium, March 3, 2010. SciMath Colloquium, University of Nebraska-Kearney, March 31, 2011.
“Natural vs. Supernatural: How can we draw the line?”, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, University of Ghent, Belgium, March 16, 2011.
“Rejecting Materialism,” Skeptics In The Pub, St. Louis, October 22, 2010.
“Angry Atheists and Soulless Scientists: Stereotypes of nonbelief in the era of the ‘New Atheism’,” Truman Folklore Colloquium, October 5, 2009.
“Evolution and Islam,” Hampshire College, October 3, 2009.
“Science and Religion in Islam,” presentations in 2007, 2008, and 2009, including Ryerson University, University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University, CFI-Los Angeles, Madison Public Library, University of Michigan. Also keynote address at Truman’s 18th Annual Undergraduate Philosophy and Religion Conference, November 10, 2007.
“Where does Intelligent Design stand today?”, Columbia Public Library, MO, co-sponsored by the Show-Me Science Alliance, October 4, 2008.
“Science and Nonbelief,” Center for Inquiry-Michigan, January 9, 2008.
“What Cost Rationality?”, Center for Inquiry Community and Student Leadership Conference, June 15, 2007.
“The Creation/Evolution Debate in the Muslim World,” University of Kansas, April 3, 2007; University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 24, 2008.
“An Accidental World,” at the Jefferson Center Summer Institute, Ashland, OR, August 5, 2006.
“Intelligent Design: Creationism Evolves Again,” presentations from 2002-2004, including at Iowa State University, Nova Southeastern University, and the Bay Area Skeptics. Also presented as the main event at Sacramento’s 7th annual Darwin Day celebration, 2004.
“Exorcizing All The Ghosts,” The Amaz!ng Meeting 1, Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 2, 2003.
“Chance and Necessity…and ‘Intelligent Design’?” at Truman State University, November 22, 2002.
Radio interview on Chicago WGN’s “Extension 720,” concerning The Ghost in the Universe, July 18, 2002.
“The Ghost in the Universe,” presentations in Kansas City, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Sacramento, Cleveland, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area, 2002-2003.
“Believing in Magic: Public Science Literacy in the New Age,” The Eupraxophy Group (Kansas City), April 28, 2002.
“Diversity within Science and its Community,” Truman Diversity Day, March 26, 2002.
“Why do a JINS Course?,” Truman Faculty Development lunch, March 20, 2002.
“Creationism to Universal Darwinism,” Truman Darwin Day, February 12, 2002.
“Where Science and Religion Disagree,” Truman Philosophy/Religion Club, October 15, 2001.

HONORS, GRANTS AND AWARDS

Sabbatical at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium, 2015-2016 academic year.
Nominated for Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship for Faculty Excellence, 2009.
Truman State University College of Arts and Sciences summer research grant, 2008.
Nominated for Truman “Educator of the Year,” 2007 and 2008.
Truman State University Faculty Research/Scholarship Grant, 2001.
Truman State University “Funding For Results” grant to develop a Junior Interdisciplinary Seminar Course, Summer 2001.

OTHER

Scientific and Technical Consultant to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI, formerly known as CSICOP).
Senior Fellow, Institute for Humanist Studies, Washington, DC.
Honorary Fellow of The Jefferson Center, Ashland, OR.

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