Enjoy the second entry in our new series of prayers for academics in specific field areas, by Robert Kaita. Our hope is that each prayer will encourage those in a particular subject area in the specificity of their daily work, while also giving those in other fields a glimpse into how their colleagues are glorifying God in different areas of inquiry. One consistent need we notice at ESN is a lack of readily available devotional and spiritual formation material addressed to the academic life. One of the best ways we’ve found to fill that need is to invite our talented members to write material and share it with each other. If you’re inspired by the series and want to contribute a prayer, you can submit a prayer for those in your field area and a short bio here. For others in the series, click here.
Our gracious Lord and heavenly Father, we come before your throne of grace in humble appreciation of the privilege to study your creation. We are thankful that we can consider, with David, “your heavens, the work of your fingers the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,†and yet know that you care for us. The more we learn through your gift of science, the more we stand in awe of you as the creator of such a vast, complex, and beautiful universe. As you are mindful of us, help us to be mindful of those around us. Help us to show patience and kindness with our colleagues and students. May all that we say and do reflect the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
About the author:
Bob Kaita, recently retired from the Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Graduate Program of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Bob investigated techniques for heating plasmas to high temperatures, and developed instrumentation for measuring them. He also explored materials that could be used in future fusion reactors. His work is described in nearly four hundred and fifty papers. Bob is a fellow of the American Physics Society, and a recipient of the Kaul Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and Technology Development. He has supervised the research of many high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including serving as the thesis advisor to fourteen Princeton doctoral students. Bob is a fellow and past president of the American Scientific Affiliation, and has served as the faculty advisor for the Princeton Graduate Christian Fellowship.