Jonathan Stott S.j.

Biography

Bro. Stott is a Jesuit and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics. Prior to entering the Jesuits, he worked at Northeastern University and in the Radiology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital doing research on optical methods for medical imaging. As a Jesuit, Bro. Stott has also studied Philosophy and has a Masters in Theological Studies. More recently, he spent two years working for the Vatican Observatory doing observational astronomy and studying stellar evolution in open stellar clusters.

Research Interest

Bro. Stott's research interest is in the use of inverse problems in physics, which uses a sparse data set, usually at the boundaries of a system, to infer something about the internal structure. In medical imaging, there is already a well-developed body of research on inverse problems. In astronomy, on the other hand, the application of inverse methods is a relatively new development: the internal structure of pulsating stars influences their normal modes of vibration, allowing us to learn something about their internal structure.