# José Gabriel Funes

José Gabriel Funes, S.J. (born January 31, 1963, in Córdoba) is an Argentine Jesuit priest and astronomer. He was the Director of the Vatican Observatory from August 19, 2006, until September 18, 2015, when he was succeeded by Pope Francis's appointment of Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J. Funes serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

## Biography

He has a master's degree in Astronomy from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina and a doctorate from the University of Padua in Italy. He also has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from University del Salvador in Argentina and a bachelor's degree in theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. A member of the Society of Jesus, he was ordained a priest in 1995. He joined the Vatican Observatory as a researcher in 2000, and was named its director on August 19, 2006, replacing Fr. George Coyne.

## Selected Papers

Funes has published approximately 30 refereed papers, mostly on the morphology and dynamics of galaxies.
| Author | Title | Journal | Year |
| LAPASSET E. and FUNES J.G. | The peculiar behaviour of the photometric variability of V508 Ophiuchi. | Astrophys. Space Sci., 113, 83-87 | 1985 |
| CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., FUNES J.G., VEGA BELTRAN J.C. and BERTOLA F. | The circumnuclear ring of ionized gas in NGC 3593. | Astron. Astrophys., 337, 80-84 | 1998 |
| VEGA BELTRAN J.C., ZEILINGER W.W., AMICO P., SCHULTHEIS M., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., BECKMAN J. and BERTOLA F. | Mixed early and late-type properties in the bar of NGC 6221: Evidence for evolution along the Hubble sequence? | Astron. Astrophys., Suppl. Ser., 131, 105-114 | 1998 |
| BERTOLA F., CAPPELLARI M., FUNES J.G., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A. and VEGA BELTRAN J.C. | Circumnuclear Keplerian disks in galaxies. | Astrophys. J., 509, L93-L96 | 1998 |
| CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., SARZI M., CINZANO P., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., FUNES J.G., BERTOLA F., PERSIC M. and SALUCCI P. | Dark matter in early-type spiral galaxies: the case of NGC 2179 and of NGC 2775. | Astron. Astrophys., 342, 671-686 | 1999 |
| BERTOLA F., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., PIZZELLA A., SARZI M., CAPPELLARI M. and FUNES J.G. | The bulge-disk orthogonal decoupling in galaxies: NGC 4698. | Astrophys. J., 519, L127-L130 | 1999 |
| SARZI M., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., CAPPELLARI M., FUNES J.G. and BERTOLA F. | NGC 4672: A new case of an early-type disk galaxy with an orthogonally decoupled core. | Astron. Astrophys., 360, 439-446 | 2000 |
| FUNES J.G. and CORSINI E.M. | Galaxy disks and disk galaxies. (Conference highlights). | Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 112, 1510–1511 | 2000 |
| VEGA BELTRAN J.C., PIZZELLA A., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., ZEILINGER W.W., BECKMAN J.E. and BERTOLA F. | Kinematic properties of gas and stars in 20 disc galaxies. | Astron. Astrophys., 374, 394-411 | 2001 |
| VENNIK J., FUNES J.G., RAFANELLI P. and RICHTER G.M. | Structure of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mkn 955. | Astron. Gesellschaft Abstract Ser., 18, 210-210 | 2001 |
| SARZI M., BERTOLA F., CAPPELLARI M., CORSINI E.M., FUNES J.G., PIZZELLA A. and VEGA BELTRAN J.C. | The orthogonal bulge-disc decoupling in NGC 4698. | Astrophys. Space Sci., 276, 467-473 | 2001 |
| VEGA BELTRAN J.C., ZEILINGER W.W., PIZZELLA A., CORSINI E.M., BERTOLA F., FUNES J.G. and BECKMAN J.E. | Kinematics of gas and stars in 20 disc galaxies. | Astrophys. Space Sci., 276, 1201–1210 | 2001 |
| PIGNATELLI E., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., BECKMAN J.E., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., SCARLATA C., BERTOLA F., FUNES J.G. and ZEILINGER W.W. | Modeling gas and stellar kinematics in disc galaxies NGC 772, NGC 3898 and NGC 7782. | Astrophys. Space Sci. Suppl., 277, 493-494 | 2001 |
| PIGNATELLI E., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., SCARLATA C., PIZZELLA A., FUNES J.G., ZEILINGER W.W., BECKMAN J.E. and BERTOLA F. | Modelling gaseous and stellar kinematics in the disc galaxies NGC 772, 3898 and 7782. | Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 323, 188-210 | 2001 |
| PIZZELLA A., BERTOLA F., SARZI M., CORSINI E.M., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., CAPPELLARI M. and FUNES J.G. | NGC 4672: a new case of an early-type disk galaxy with an orthogonally decoupled core. | Mem. Soc. Astron. Ital., 72, 797-800 | 2001 |
| FUNES J.G. | Kinematics of the ionized gas in the inner regions of disk galaxies. (Dissertation summary). | Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 113, 257-257 | 2001 |
| FUNES J.G., CORSINI E.M., CAPPELLARI M., PIZZELLA A., VEGA BELTRAN J.C., SCARLATA C. and BERTOLA F. | Position-velocity diagrams of ionized gas in the inner regions of disk galaxies. | Astron. Astrophys., 388, 50-67 | 2002 |
| FUNES J.G., REJKUBA M., MINNITI D., AKIYAMA S. and KENNICUTT R.C. | Star formation in the disk of NGC 5128. | American Astron. Soc. meeting, 201, #20.23 | 2002 |
| COCCATO L., CORSINI E.M., PIZZELLA A., MORELLI L., FUNES J.G. and BERTOLA F. | Minor-axis velocity gradients in disk galaxies'. | Astron. Astrophys., 416, 507-514 | 2004 |
| LEE J.C., KENNICUTT R.C., FUNES J.G., SAKAI S., TREMONTI C.A. and VAN ZEE L. | 11HUGS: The 11 Mpc H-{alpha} and ultraviolet galaxy survey. | American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #60.04 | 2004 |
| KENNICUTT R.C., LEE J.C., AKIYAMA S., FUNES J.G. and SAKAI S. | An H-{alpha} imaging survey of galaxies in the local 11 Mpc volume. | American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #60.05 | 2004 |
| KRALL C. and FUNES J.G. | H-alpha and UBR imaging of elliptical galaxies with dust lanes. | American Astron. Soc. meeting, 205, #92.04 | 2004 |
| MINNITI D., REJKUBA M., FUNES J.G. and AKIYAMA S. | Optical counterparts of X-ray point sources observed by Chandra in NGC 5128: 20 new globular cluster X-ray sources. | Astrophys. J., 600, 716-728 | 2004 |
| MINNITI D., REJKUBA M., FUNES J.G. and KENNICUTT R.C.Jr | The most exciting massive binary cluster in NGC 5128: clues to the formation of globular clusters. | Astrophys. J., 612, 215-221 | 2004 |
| VILLEGAS D., MINNITI D. and FUNES J.G. | HST photometry of the binary globular cluster Sersic 13N-S in NGC 5128. | Astron. Astrophys., 442, 437-442 | 2005 |
| GUTIERREZ C.M., ALONSO M.S., FUNES J.G. and RIBEIRO M.B. | Star formation in satellite galaxies. | Astron. J., 132, 596-607 | 2006 |
| LEE J.C., KENNICUTT R.C., FUNES J.G., SAKAI S. and AKIYAMA S. | The star formation demographics of galaxies in the Local Volume. | Astrophys. J., 671, L113-L116 | 2007 |

## Views around Extraterrestrials

In an interview in May 2008 he stated that the possible existence of intelligent extraterrestrials did not contradict church teaching and ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom. He has speculated that such alien life forms could even be “free from Original Sin ... [remaining] in full friendship with their creator.” He is also on record as stating "I continue to believe that God created the universe, and that we are not the product of chance, but the children of a good father, who has a design for us based on love," though he does believe in the Big Bang.