alexander delivered the gifford lectures at st andrews university in 2012 that were published by cambridge university press in august 2017 under the title genes determinism and god alexanders latest books are is there purpose in biology (oxford: lion 2018) and are we slaves to our genes (cup 2020) in october 2018 he defended the motion this house believes that science will never answer lifes biggest questions at oxford universitys famous debating society in front of 750 students (a 10-minute talk that can be found on youtube) easily winning the motion sreenivasan holds professorships in the department of physics courant institute of mathematical sciences and department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at nyu previously he was dean of the nyu tandon school of engineering president of former brooklyn polytechnic director of the international centre for theoretical physics in trieste italy and held faculty appointments at the university of maryland and yale university he has been a visiting professor at caltech rockefeller university cambridge university and the institute for advanced study at princeton sreenivasan has been elected to the indian academy of sciences indian national science academy academy of sciences for the developing world (twas) african academy of sciences us national academy of sciences and national academy of engineering american academy of arts and sciences and accademia die lincei in rome his honors include a guggenheim fellowship; american physical society (aps) otto laporte award fluid dynamics prize and leo kadanoff prize; american society of civil engineers von karman medal; society of engineering science gi taylor medal; american society of mechanical engineers charles russ richards award; indian institute of science distinguished alumnus award and centennial professorship; indian academy of sciences sir cv raman visiting professorship; international prize and gold medal in memory of professors modesto panetti and carlo ferrari; assembly of world conference on experimental heat transfer fluid mechanics and thermodynamics nusselt-reynolds prize; and duty society and indian society of applied and industrial mathematics president dr zakir husain memorial award in recognition of his work on international science he has received the brazilian government and academy of sciences national order of scientific merit; unesco medal for promoting international scientific cooperation and world peace; aps dwight nicholson medal; and aaas award for international scientific cooperation he is an inaugural fellow of the hagler institute for advanced study at texas a&m (class of 2012-13) the trotter prize and endowed lecture series seeks to illuminate connections between science and religion often viewed in academia as non-overlapping if not rival world views the series was established in 2001 by dr ide p trotter jr 54 and luella h trotter with a matching contribution from exxonmobil corp to honor ide p trotter sr former dean of texas a&m universitys graduate school and to recognize pioneering contributions to the understanding of the role of information complexity and inference in illuminating the mechanisms and wonder of nature for more information on the event contact jennifer holle in the college of science deans office at (979) 845-8817 or j-holle@tamuedu to learn more about the history of the trotter lecture series and past presenters visit https://sciencetamuedu/trotter/