Meet the Johnnies: Shannon Hateley (SF07)
Alumni
Shannon Hateley (SF07) is a computational biologist and senior staff scientist at Ancestry.
Natural Sciences
How can humans understand the natural world? What is really there? How does it move? What are matter, energy, space, time, and light? What is life and how does it evolve? At St. John’s, students study physics, biology, and chemistry through books and experiments that help them face these difficult, basic questions and to see how they might be answered. The program ranges widely to explore quantum physics, relativity, and contemporary molecular biology.
Reading List
Archimedes “On the Equilibrium of Planes,” “On Floating Bodies”
Aristotle Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachaen Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals
Amedeo Avogadro "Essay on a Manner of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of Bodies”
Claude Berthollet “Excerpt from Essai de Statique Chimique”
Joseph Black “Extracts from Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry”
Stanislao Cannizzaro “Letter to Professor S. De Luca”
John Dalton “Extracts from A New System of Chemical Philosophy”
Hans Driesch “The Science and Philosophy of the Organism”
Euclid Elements
Daniel Fahrenheit “The Fahrenheit Scale”
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac “On the Expansion of Gases by Heat,” “Memoir on the Combination of Gaseous Substances with Each Other”
William Harvey Motion of the Heart and Blood
Antoine Lavoisier Elements of Chemistry
Lucretius On the Nature of Things
Edme Mariotte Essays
Dmitri Mendeleev “The Periodic Law of the Chemical Elements”
Nicomachus Arithmetic
Blaise Pascal Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids
J.L. Proust “Excerpt from Sur Les Oxidations Metalliques”
Ptolemy Almagest
Hans Spemann “The Organizer-Effect in Embryonic Development” (Nobel Lecture 1935), “Embryonic Development and Induction”
J. J. Thomson “Extracts from System of Chemistry”
Rudolf Virchow “Cellular Pathology Lectures”
Apollonius Conics
Aristotle De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories
Francis Bacon Novum Organum
Nicolaus Copernicus On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres
René Descartes Geometry, Discourse on Method
Johannes Kepler Astronomia Nova
Blaise Pascal Generation of Conic Sections
Ptolemy Almagest
François Viète Introduction to the Analytical Art
André-Marie Ampère Essays
Daniel Bernoulli “On the Vibrating String”
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb “Excerpts from Coulomb’s Mémoires sur l’électricité et le magnétisme”
Richard Dedekind Essay on the Theory of Numbers
René Descartes Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Leonhard Euler “Remarks on the Preceding Papers by Mr. Bernoulli”
Michael Faraday “Experimental Researches in Electricity”
Benjamin Franklin “Excerpt from several letters to Peter Collinson on the nature of electricity”
Galileo Galilei Two New Sciences
William Gilbert “De Magnete”
David Hume Treatise on Human Nature
Christiaan Huygens Treatise on Light, On the Movement of Bodies by Impact
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Principles of Nature and Grace, Essays
James Clerk Maxwell “On Faraday’s Lines of Force.” “On Physical Lines of Force,” “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”
Isaac Newton Principia Mathematica
Jean-Antoine Nollet “Observations on Several New Electrical Phenomena”
Hans Christian Ørsted “Experiments concerning the efficacy of electric conflict on the magnetic needle”
Brook Taylor “On the motion of the stretched string”
Alessandro Volta “On the Electricity excited by the mere contact of conducting substances of different kinds”
Thomas Young “On the Nature of Light and Colors”
Niels Bohr “On the Spectrum of Hydrogen”
Theodor Boveri Essays
Louisde Broglie “Matter Waves”
Charles Darwin Origin of Species
Albert Einstein “Relativity,” “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” “On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light,” “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity,” “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?”
Michael Faraday “On the Absolute Quantity of Electricity Associated with the Particles or Atoms of Matter”
François Jacob & Jacques Monod Essays
George Beadle & Edward Tatum Essays
G. H. Hardy “Mendelian Proportions in a Mixed Population”
Georg Hegel Phenomenology of Mind
Werner Karl Heisenberg “Critique of the Physical Concepts of the Particle Picture”
Edmund Husserl The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
James Watson & Francis Crick Essays
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck “Zoological Philosophy”
Nikolai Lobachevsky Theory of Parallels
Gregor Mendel “Experiments with Plant Hybridization”
Robert Andrews Millikan “The Electron”
Hermann Minkowski “Space and Time”
Thomas Morgan “Evolution and Genetics,” “The Chromosomes and Mendel's Two Laws,” “The Linkage Groups and the Chromosomes,” “Sex-Linked Inheritance,” “Crossing-Over”
Max Planck “The Quantum Hypothesis”
Ernest Rutherford “The Scattering of α & β Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom”
Erwin Schrödinger “Four Lectures of Wave Mechanics—First Lecture”
Joel Sussman Essays
Walter Sutton Essays
J. J. Thomson “Cathode Rays”
Albert Einstein Essays
Richard Feynman QED
Georg Hegel Philosophy of Nature
Konrad Lorenz Studies in Animal and Human Behavior
Bertrand Russell An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Computation
Computing Technology and Human Society
Neuroscience Mathematics and Natural Science
The information presented is for illustration purposes only and may not reflect the current reading list and preceptorial and study group offerings. Works listed are studied at one or both campuses, although not always in their entirety.
Jim Beall in Science Magazine
07/19/2021
Tutor
Annapolis
Tutor and theoretical astrophysicist Jim Beall talks to Science magazine about the Event Horizon Telescope.
Natalie Elliot in Scientific American
New Approach Could Boost the Search for Life in Otherworldly Oceans
07/19/2021
Tutor
Santa Fe
In Scientific American, Santa Fe tutor Natalie Elliot writes: “‘Ecological biosignatures’” hold promise for revealing alien organisms that may dwell within icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus.”
Johnnie Uncovers the Mysteries of Plant Life with Beal Seed Experiment
Alumni
Every 20 years, a group of scientists—including Johnnie alum Margaret Fleming (A04)—gathers in the wee hours of the morning, rendezvous at a secret location on the Michigan State University campus, and digs up seeds that were originally buried 142 years ago
Formulating Questions for NASA: Austin Dumas (A21)
Johnnies
At his summer 2020 Hodson internship with NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), Austin Dumas (A21) frequently employed one of the quintessential skills students practice at St. John’s: the ability to formulate questions.
William Donahue on New Mexico In Focus, a Production of NMPBS
Looking to History and the Skies for Understanding
07/02/2021
Tutor
Santa Fe
William Donahue of St. John’s College in Santa Fe sits down with NMiF senior producer Matt Grubs to talk about receiving the LeRoy Doggett Prize for his work in historical astronomy.
Student Melds Mindfulness and Psychology through Hodson Internship
Through the Hodson Trust Internship Program, Sanju Baral (A20) spent the summer working at Psychbigyaan Network Nepal (PNN), a youth-led organization focused on raising awareness about mental health and psychology.
Student Spends Summer Exploring the Skies through Hodson Internship
A Hodson internship allowed Tbel Abuseridze (A20) to spend his summer working in astrophotography.
A Pathways Fellowship Paves the Way for a Lab Internship: Sandrina Mislitchi (SF22)
Johnnies
While her original plans for summer 2020 were postponed, Sandrina Mislitchi (SF22) used a Pathways Fellowship to study introductory statistical methods and applications at University of Chicago.
Tutor Eric Poppele (SF89) on the Power of the St. John’s Lab Program
Tutor
As he moves out of the Lab Director position, Santa Fe tutor Eric Poppele considers the unique gifts of the Lab Program.
Graduate Institute Alumna on Space, the Humanities, and Civil Discourse
Alumni
Marilyn Roper was part of the United States effort to get the first man on the moon. Now, she leads St. John's-esque discussions for her faith community.
Nuclear Physicist and Cancer Researcher Cynthia Keppel Hellman (A84) to Receive Award of Merit
Alumni
Cynthia Keppel Hellman (A84) will receive a St. John's College Award of Merit at this year's Homecoming.
Meet the Johnnies: Clayton “Tex” Pasley (A11)
Johnnies
Clayton “Tex” Pasley (A11) is a recent recipient of the Powell Fellowship in Legal Services, an honor named for Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. that supports legal services for low-income populations.
The St. John's Education in Action: Q&A with Dr. Stephen Forman (A70)
Alumni
Stephen Forman (A70) is a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors and a recent inductee into the Association of American Physicians. Here, he discusses how St. John’s is the perfect education for students seeking to advance in the medical field.
Santa Fe Alum Makes Midlife Career Change, Lands at NASA
Alumni
Josh Foster (SF97) decided to make a midlife career change and landed a position working with one of the world’s most respected institutions.
Two Alumni Join Forces to Create Training Program
Alumni
Michael Conway (SF94) and Jonathan Spooner (A96) have created a nonprofit educational training program for students entering the workforce.
Lab Manuals Get an Upgrade in Santa Fe
Johnnies
For the first time since the Program’s science curriculum was adopted some four decades ago, source material for labs is available to students in Santa Fe in the form of spine-bound softcover books.
Meet the Johnnies: Emma Seba (SF20)
Johnnies
Though she began her education on a pre-med track, Emma Seba (SF20) soon discovered that the Program is what she’d been looking for all along.
Alum Robin Burk on the Power of Networks
Alumni
Robin Burk (A72) recently gave a TEDx talk titled “Countering Collapse of Our Interconnected, Interdependent World.”
For One Alumna, an Unexpected Path Led to an Award-Winning Career
Alumni
Melanie Santiago-Mosier (A00) planned to go to the Naval Academy, but ended up on St. John’s campus. Now, she’s an award-winning member of the solar energy field.
Tutors Talk Books: Dean Emily Langston on Euclid’s “Elements”
Tutor
In her speech to a new class of Graduate Institute students, Emily Langston explains the eternal appeal of Euclid to those starting the Program.
St. John’s Student Legislators Recognized
Alumni
Students from St. John’s College in Annapolis were recognized this month as Most Outstanding Delegation at the Maryland Student Legislature’s annual session.
To the Science Lab, With Love
Johnnies
Akiva Katz (SF18), who’s in his third year as a lab assistant, organized a fundraiser to recognize tutor emeritus Bill Donahue’s contributions as director of labs.
U.S. Naval Observatory
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Giving Back to St. John’s
Alumni
The St. John’s College Santa Fe Class of 2004 has raised $145,000 for a fully functional, surgical steel armillary sphere to be installed on campus.
Tutor Earns Top Award for Dissertation
Tutor
St. John’s College visiting tutor Kathleen Longwaters recently won the University of Texas Austin’s highest graduate student award for her dissertation.
A New Era in Medicine
Alumni
Anthony Vitto (A70) learned to love math and science at St. John’s College, and is now a teleneurologist in New England.
Balancing Theory and Practice
Internships
Jake Stief (SF20) completed a Pathways Fellowship last summer at Harvard.
In Search of Another Way
Alumni
Don Hitt (AGI06) was a commercial airline pilot before he enrolled in the St. John’s College Graduate Institute.
Complementing the Program
Student Group
St. John’s College students in Santa Fe partnered with the Office of Personal and Professional Development to hold a computer coding camp on campus.
J.A.M.I.N. in Jamaica
Johnnies
While most St. John’s College students spent the end of January bundled up against a mid-winter chill, one Johnnie was working on an outdoor education program with teens in Jamaica.
Studying How to Serve
Johnnies
Joy Nwodo (SF19) spent a day with alumna Elizabeth Buchen (SF96) as part of the college’s job shadowing program.
Shadowing for the Future
Johnnies
Sophomore Yunju Park took part in the college’s job shadowing program last summer in Canada.
Stewards of the Environment
News
St. John’s in Annapolis was accepted recently into the Maryland Green Registry for its ongoing environmental efforts.
Addressing the Mind-Body Connection
Alumni
Ariel Winnick (SF11, EC12) is studying medicine at Ben-Gurion University’s Medical School for International Health in Israel.
Learning in a Digital Age
News
The sixth and final lecture of the Summer Wednesday Night Lecture Series in Annapolis will take place July 26 and focus on the effects of digital technology on learning.
The Philosophy of Technology
Tutor
Students in Annapolis and Santa Fe this fall are participating in a new digital technology preceptorial.
The Power of Alumni Mentorship
Alumni
Terrance (T.J.) Schaub (SF18) had a lot of support in landing his summer 2017 Ariel Internship with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Alumnus Strategizes Giving Approach
Alumni
Alumnus John Rees (A74) made a multi-year pledge to St. John’s, which allows him and the college to plan ahead.
Protecting the Power Grid
Alumni
Mike Wu (SF07) founded his own consulting firm that works with government agencies, utility companies and others to secure their power grids.
Amplifying DNA and Isolating Proteins
Tutor
A gift of modern biology equipment catapults Santa Fe’s senior lab program well into the 21st century.
Experimenting in Liberal Arts
News
Efforts are underway to build quantum optics laboratories at the St. John’s College campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe.
A Medical Clinic Grows in Gambia
Alumni
Recent St. John's College graduate Mason Troupe (A18) is using a $10,000 grant from Projects for Peace to help a medical clinic expand in Gambia.
Nontraditional Path to Science Career
Alumni
Ethologist Meghan Lockard (SF07) is working toward her PhD and conducting nematode worm research at The Rockefeller University in New York.
Philosophy to Neurosurgery
Alumni
Dr. Justin Cetas (SF93) is an accomplished neurosurgeon and educator in the Pacific Northwest.
Senior Essay
Turning the World Inside-Out: Why the Newtonian Theory of Planetary Motion Supersedes the Ptolemaic
Lecture
Aristotle on Respiration: The Origins of Functional Anatomy
James G. Lennox
Unconventional Path to Medical School
Alumni
Former St. John’s student Richard Babicz (SF09) has done a little bit of everything since he graduated. Now he’s nearing the end of medical school.
Study Group Explores Digital Technology
Tutor
The Mellon Foundation Study Group on Digital Technology is working to determine whether digital technology has a place in the St. John’s curriculum.
Yale School of Medicine, Bloomfield Lab
Internships
Owen Morgan (A17) studied at the Blumenfeld Lab at the Yale Neuroscience Imaging Center.
Lecture
Beyond Point-and-Shoot Morality: Why Cognitive Science Matters for Ethics
Joshua David Greene
Programming for the Environment
Alumni
St. John’s College alumna Sarah Schoedinger (A92) is the senior program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Education.
Modern Gladiator
Alumni
Michelle Urban (SF08) is CEO of Albuquerque-based Pressure Analysis Company (PAC), which designs and manufactures wireless technology to track head injuries in athletes.
Senior Essay
Chaos and Quanta: Two New Hypotheses in Max Plank’s Theory of Heat Radiation
Student Connects with Alumni for Career in Physics
Johnnies
Marybeth Beydler (A16), St. John’s student and spring intern at CERN, spoke about the alumni network at the college.
Environmental Club
Student Group
The St. John’s Environmental Club is devoted to creating awareness on campus about issues relating to protection, conservation, preservation, and restoration—with an emphasis on educating and empowering students.
Lecture
Evolution as a Cause
Benjamin Liebeskind
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Internships
St. John’s College graduate Krisin Hoch (SF16) spent her summer studying the cosmos as part of the Ariel Internship Program.
Conservation Ecology Center at the Smithsonian National Zoo
Internships
Andrea Hill (A16) studied chimpanzee eating habits at the Conservation Ecology Center at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC.
Finding Fulfillment in Solar Energy
Alumni
St. John’s College alumnus Ethan Goddard (A14) is now a commercial project manager for a solar company in Maryland.
Working for the Environment
Alumni
Alumna Sophie Stauffer (SF12) recently completed post-master’s work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and is set to begin a new job with the New Mexico Environment Department.
Lecture
Brightness at Night: an Old Astronomical Puzzle and Its Modern Answers
Peter Pesic
University of Maryland, Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Senior Essay
Probabilistic Causality: On the Completeness and Elegance of Quantum Mechanics
Senior Essay
Technology as Symbol: Ernst Jünger and the Irruption of Technological Consciousness into Bourgeois Space
A Connection to Outer Space
Johnnies
When St. John’s College junior Catherine Baldwin interned at the NASA History Program Office last summer, it provided her with a connection to the hit movie “Hidden Figures.”
Senior Essay
To Be and Not to Be - Heisenberg’s Third Possibility: On Physics as an Art and a Language Immersed in the Strangeness of Nature in the Quantum World
Anne Arundel Medical Center
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Senior Essay
An Ethic for Milk and Honey: Hunting Instinct and the Obligations of Sportsmanship in Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac
Sustainability
Student Group
Senior Essay
Order and Human Nature in Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture
Advanced Institute for Science and Technology
Internships
During his Hodson summer internship, St. John’s student Tri Nguyen (A17) went from novice in the lab to performing his own experiments.
Senior Essay
The Role of Beauty in Science as Seen in the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen Paper and Responses to it Within the Context of Quantum Theory
A Space Odyssey
Alumni
St. John’s College alumnus Tai Ragan (SF15) is set to begin a new job at NASA.
An Internship for the Dogs
Internships
The program focused on helping train search-and-rescue dogs at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia.
Lecture
Einstein Between War and Fiction
Jimena Canales
Conservation in the Prairie
Alumni
Julia Leone (A12) recently was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to continue her work in conservation biology.
Windward Education and Research Center
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Quality Books to Quality Engineering
Alumni
Andrew Mize (A12) is a quality engineer specialist at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, the company’s largest motor vehicle manufacturing plant.
Lecture
Leibniz’s Monadology and the Philosophical Foundations of Non-locality in Quantum Mechanics
J.H. Beall
A Lesson in Perseverance
Alumni
St. John’s College alumnus Matt Carver learned a lot in Annapolis, but he says the ability to push his own limits was among the most important lessons.
City of Hope, Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Lecture
Subjective Sensory Experience and the Fallacy of Neural Codes
L.M. Kay
Start-Up Soars Over Competition
Alumni
St. John’s College graduate Robert Morris (SF04) is CEO of TerrAvion, a company that produces the highest volume of aerial imagery for agriculture in the nation.
Senior Essay
The Concept of Mass in Newton’s Principia
Dutton Road Veterinary Clinic
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Senior Essay
Beyond the Flaming Ramparts: Dirac’s Symbolic Method
Alumni in Science
Alumni
Four St. John’s College alumni who went on to prominent careers in math and science gave advice to students during the Alumni in Science Panel on the Annapolis campus.
Lecture
Newton’s Double Pendulum Experiment: Talk and Demonstration
Curtis Wilson
Searching for a Cure
Alumni
St. John’s College alum David Hysong (AGI11) has been named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” for his efforts in cancer therapy development.
University of Pittsburgh Neurological Surgery Dept. Hillman Cancer Center
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Float Brings Hope to Rose Parade
Alumni
St. John’s College alum Dr. Stephen Forman was part of a group that received national attention at the 128th Rose Parade in California.
Senior Essay
In Search of the Absolute—How Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Hammer Came Down on Relativity
George Mason University School of Physics Astronomy & Computational Sciences
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Senior Essay
Michael Faraday Describes Magnetism Heuristically
Lecture
What is a Q.E.F.? Reflections on the Nature of Geometrical Making
Michael Augros
Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Graduate Student Leads a Life of Service
Alumni
Erinn Woodside applied and started at the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College while still an active duty officer in the US Air Force.
Tufts University, Advanced Integrated Circuits & Systems Lab
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.
Lecture
What is the Surface Area of a Hedgehog?
Barry Mazur
University of Maryland, Department of Physics, Physics Education Research Group
Internships
The Hodson and Ariel Internship Programs support Johnnies who want to pursue internships that would otherwise be unpaid.