Pope Leo XIV honors Harvard scientist whose pursuit of knowledge led her to faith

Pope Leo XIV presented the Pius XI Medal to Karin Öberg , a Harvard scientist specializing in astrochemistry, during a recent audience with members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The award, presented on Sept. 24, recognizes scientists under the age of 45 who have distinguished themselves through their research and show “exceptional promise” in their field. Recipients of this medal include several Nobel laureates and the physicist Stephen Hawking.

Öberg holds the Thomas Dudley Cabot Chair in the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and directs the Öberg Astrochemistry Laboratory at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her work focuses, among other topics, on chemical processes related to planet formation and chemical habitability.

But beyond her scientific career, Öberg has spoken publicly about her conversion to Catholicism and how her pursuit of knowledge influenced her journey toward faith.

In a 2011 interview with the Augustine Institute , she explained that there were aspects of the world that began to make it difficult for her to accept a strictly materialist worldview.

“There were certain facts about the world that made me very skeptical of…