The Role of Beauty in University Education

We typically think of universities as dedicated to the pursuit of truth. But how is beauty relevant to university education?

In this short video, Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, President of The Catholic University of America, explores the profound relationship between the beauty of science and the mission of the university.

Dr. Kilpatrick, who became the 16th president of The Catholic University of America in 2022, has an extensive background in both academia and research. Before his current role, he served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Illinois Institute of Technology and as the McCloskey Dean of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His career has been marked by significant achievements in chemical engineering, where he holds 12 patents and has published over 100 refereed journal articles.

In this video, he discusses the varieties of beauty in science, from the symmetry and uniqueness found in snowflakes to the simplicity of subatomic particles, and highlights the role of beauty in a university education that can help us understand what it truly means to be human.

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