![[Currents header
graphic]](/homeart/currents_header.gif)
February 3, 1997
Awards and Honors
![[photo of joel primack]](/oncampus/art/joel_primack.gif)
Professor of physics Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen
Abrams were recognized by the Templeton Exemplary Papers Program for
"In a Beginning... Quantum Cosmology and Kabbalah," an article
they published in the January/February 1995 issue of Tikkun, a bimonthly
Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society. The article earned an
award as an exemplary paper in humility theology for 1996 in the category
of theology and the natural sciences. Both Primack and Abrams received
$1,000 for the honor. The John Templeton Foundation, which sponsors the
award program, also funded a popular UCSC course taught by Primack and
Abrams, Cosmology and Culture, offered in winter 1996 as Crown 80C
and in winter 1997 as Physics 80C. Further, Primack is advising the Templeton
Foundation on a project called "Science and the Spiritual Quest,"
which will bring together physicists and cosmologists--including several
Nobel laureates--for workshops and a conference in 1997-98.