DAVID B. GO, Ph.D.
AWARD-WINNING ENGINEER, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
David B. Go is the Viola D. Hank Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, where he is also Vice President and Associate Provost for Academic Strategy. Born and raised near the campus of Notre Dame, Dr. Go attended the university for his undergraduate education, then worked for General Electric Aviation after graduation. After receiving his doctorate from Purdue University, Dr. Go returned to Notre Dame as a member of the faculty in 2008.
Dr. Go has enjoyed success in research and teaching, publishing nearly one hundred papers on topics in plasma science and engineering, energy and thermal management, and chemical and biological analysis; inventing multiple technologies that have been patented and licensed; and developing new courses and learning spaces for engineering education. He has also written a short book on plasma science entitled Ionization and Ion Transport: A Primer for the Study of Gas Discharges and Plasmas.
Dr. Go is married and has two children.
Image and Likeness
DAVID B. GO
The beauty of the natural world is stunning. Stunning in its vastness, from the oceans, mountains, and canyons on earth to the stars in the sky. Stunning in its strength, from the rushing waters of massive waterfalls to the destructive force of fires and storms. Stunning in its delight in the smallest and most fragile insect, animal, and plant. And stunning in the peace it brings and the calm it bears. We feel nature. We breathe nature. It consumes us, and we find it wondrous and captivating and magical and mystical. Nature conjures a sense of something beyond our reach, beyond our understanding, and beyond our world; a sense of the Divine. But so do we; so does humankind – we also have the power to bring forth a beauty that mesmerizes in its vastness, strength, fragility, and calm.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is believed that humankind is made in the image and likeness of God. And that same tradition reveals God to be many things – loving, angry, merciful, vengeful, nurturing, and always powerful. But in the simplest sense, God is one thing: Creator. Creator of the universe, of the land and the seas, of the infinity that is space and of the finite that is life. And being in God’s image and likeness built marvels like the Eiffel Tower, the skyscrapers of New York City, or the Great Pyramids, we can be overcome by their immensity and limitlessness. When we use technologies like airplanes and computers, we experience firsthand how we can tame nature. And when we see images of war and conflict, we can be overwhelmed by how we create destruction.
And if humankind has this immeasurable ability to construct and create, from where did we get such power? Whence are we able to see something beyond our world that does not exist, and bring it to existence? Why can we envision what is beyond our reach and express it in art and literature and music and speech?
It is in our ability to create that we can not only imagine the Divine, but find truth in the Divine. It is in the creation by the hands and minds of humankind over centuries and millennia, that I find awe. And in this awe, I find God.