
Guillermo Gonzalez is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, the Templeton Foundation, Sigma Xi (scientific research society), and the National Science Foundation. He has taught astronomy and physics courses at the University of Washington, Iowa State University, Grove City College, and Ball State University.
Gonzalez has extensive experience in observing and analyzing data from ground-based observatories, including work at McDonald Observatory, Apache Point Observatory and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. He is a world-class expert on the astrophysical requirements for habitability and on habitable zones and a co-founder of the "Galactic Habitable Zone" concept, which captured the October 2001 cover story of Scientific American. Astronomers and astrobiologists around the world are pursuing research based on his work on exoplanet host stars, the Galactic Habitable Zone and red giants.
Gonzalez has also published over 90 articles in refereed astronomy and astrophysical journals including The Astrophysical Journal, The Astronomical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Icarus and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. He also is the co-author of the second edition of Observational Astronomy, an advanced college astronomy textbook.
In 2024, he co-authored the YA novel The Farm at the Center of the Universe with Jonathan Witt. In 2004, he co-authored The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery with Jay W. Richards. He's also an affiliate of Biologic Institute.
Archives


Life and Origami: Lessons from the Art of Paper-Folding

Francis Collins Employs Climate Change as a Cudgel

Comet Caps a Year of Natural Beauty

Two Poems for Europa, Jupiter’s Lifeless Moon

Europa Clipper: The Moon Mission Making Waves

Guillermo Gonzalez on His Love For Astronomy

Were We Made to Make Black Holes?

Weird Water and Its Role in the Rise of Chemistry

Robin Collins’s “Fine-Tuning for Discoverability” Argument

Guillermo Gonzalez on 20th Anniversary Edition of The Privileged Planet

Plate Tectonics and Scientific Discovery

Solar Eclipses May Have Spurred Both Scientific Curiosity and Economic Development

Beauty and Our Privileged Planet

The Privileged Planet (20th Anniversary Edition)
How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed For Discovery
Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez Reads His Solar Eclipse Poem “Totality”

The Farm at the Center of the Universe: Q&A with the Authors

New Novel Invites Teens to Ponder Our Privileged Planet

A Reading From The Farm at the Center of the Universe
