J. Micah Roos, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, was awarded a $225,000 planning grant for the project titled “Global Research on the Aesthetic Dimensions of Science” from the Templeton Religion Trust as Co-Principal Investigator with Brandon Vaidyanathan, Catholic University.

The project is a systematic, cross-national study focused on the role of beauty, awe, and wonder in scientific inquiry, and specifically, how practitioners experience these things in their work and whether or not the experience motivates retention. The grant began in February 2018 and ends in August 2019.