About the Author
Michelle writes under two different names on two very different topics — science and spirituality — something it took Google nearly two years to figure out. She regularly talks about the intersection of science and religion, but always has a hard time figuring out which name to use when she does. She tweets about both @MichelleFrancl.
Writing Science
Michelle M. Francl, Ph.D. is the Frank B. Mallory Professor of Chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, where she has been on the faculty since 1986, and an Adjunct Scholar of the Vatican Observatory. She is a quantum chemist who has published in areas ranging from the development of methods for computational chemistry to the structures of topologically intriguing molecules.
Michelle is also a writer whose essays on science, culture and policy appear regularly in Nature Chemistry and in several collections. She was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2009 and is the 2019 recipient of the ACS Philadelphia Section Award. She gives occasional workshops on writing for scientists and blogs at The Culture of Chemistry. See what Michelle is writing about science and view her CV.
Writing Spirituality
Michelle Francl-Donnay is a writer, teacher, wife, and the mother of two twenty-something sons. Her reflections on struggling to live a contemplative life in the midst of the everyday chaos that comes with being a working wife and mother can be found in a number of print and online venues. She gives the occasional retreat, and blogs on life, laundry, prayer and God at Quantum Theology.
Michelle has been Roman Catholic since she was 8 days old. She has been a cantor and altar server and regularly joins the Augustinian community at her parish in suburban Philadelphia to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours. She is a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, outside of Philadelphia, where she teaches and does research on molecules with weird shapes, and an Adjunct Scholar of the Vatican Observatory, where both her science and faith collide. See what Michelle is writing on spirituality and the contemplative life here.
— Contact Michelle at michellemfrancl@gmail.com —