Victor J. Stenger

His final book was God and the Multiverse: Humanity's Expanding View of the Cosmos (2014). He was a regular featured science columnist for the Huffington Post. An advocate for removing the influence of religion from scientific research, commercial activity, and the political process, Stenger coined the quote: "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings" (a reference to the September 11 attacks).

Stenger studied at New Jersey Institute of Technology and University of California, Los Angeles. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is physics, particle physics and quantum mechanics. Places of work recorded in the authority are Boulder. Employment is recorded with University of Colorado and Heidelberg University. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

• Name — Victor J. Stenger • Born — January 29, 1935 • Birthplace — Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S. • Died — 25 August 2014 • Place of death — Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. • Fields — Particle physics, philosophy • Education — New Jersey Institute of Technology, UCLA • Thesis Title — Low Energy K+d Scattering and the I=0 KN Interaction • Thesis Year — 1963 • Doctoral Advisor — Harold K. Ticho • Spouse — Phylliss Marcia (Black) Stenger (m. 1962) • Children — Noelle Green, Victor Andrew

Victor J. Stenger was born on January 29, 1935, and raised in a working-class neighborhood of Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was a Lithuanian immigrant, and his mother was the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. He died on August 25, 2014, at the age of 79.

Stenger attended public schools in Bayonne, New Jersey, and received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology). He then moved to Los Angeles on a Hughes Aircraft Company fellowship, earning a Master of Science and PhD in physics from UCLA. He was a member of the Department of Physics at the University of Hawaii until his 2000 retirement. He held visiting positions on the faculties of the University of Heidelberg in Germany and Oxford University (twice) and was a visiting researcher at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati, Italy, and the University of Florence in Italy. He served as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Stenger's first peer-reviewed work was published in 1964, and his research career continued until his retirement in 2000. His research involved work that determined properties of gluons, quarks, strange particles, and neutrinos. Stenger focused on neutrino astronomy and very high-energy gamma rays.

• President, 1990–1994, Hawaiian Humanists • Member of Editorial Board, Free Inquiry • Member of Society of Humanist Philosophers • Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry • Fellow of the Center for Inquiry • President, 2002–2006, Colorado Citizens for Science

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From 1998 to 2011 Stenger wrote for the column "Reality Check," in Skeptical Briefs, the quarterly newsletter of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). Since August 2010, he was also a regularly featured science columnist for the Huffington Post.

Stenger has been included in CSI's Pantheon of Skeptics. The Pantheon of Skeptics was created by CSI to remember the legacy of deceased fellows of CSI and their contributions to the cause of scientific skepticism.