Nancy has always been intrigued by science's border with myth. She strives as a philosopher to put the discoveries of modern cosmology into a cultural context and as a musician to communicate their possible meanings at a deeper level. In her latest book, A God That Could be Real, available March 2015, she answers the question:
“Could anything actually exist in the scientific universe that is worthy of being called God?”
Nancy is also an activist engaged in the role of science in shaping a new politics. As a lawyer and Fulbright scholar she has worked in this area for the International Juridical Association in Rome, a European environmental law think tank, as well as the Ford Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. She also co-created the technique of Scientific Mediation, a process that allows government agencies to make informed and insightful policy decisions on issues where science is crucial but disputed. Scientific Mediation aims not to resolve scientific controversy, which can only be done by scientific research, but to make the essence of the dispute transparent to the non-scientists making the practical political decision. She has consulted on the use of this novel procedure for Sweden, the state governments of California and Wisconsin, and Exxon Nuclear.
And Nancy is an artist and a patron of the arts, because she believes passionately that there cannot be a new picture of reality -- whether cosmological, political, or spiritual -- without the creative participation of artists.
She's a graduate of the University of Chicago, with a degree in the History and Philosophy of Science, and a JD. from the University of Michigan Law School.