[dhosek]

To be more precise, she was a sister. A nun would be a woman consecrated to religious life who lives cloistered. While "nun" is used colloquially to refer to all women religious, the technical meaning is narrower.

As many other commenters have noted, there is a culture of many women religious receiving advanced degrees. One of my college friends who got his PhD in political science at MIT was surprised to discover that there were two women religious in his grad school cohort.

In parallel terms, "monk" and "brother" are often used interchangeably, but like with nun, a monk lives cloistered. A brother is a non-ordained man consecrated to religious life. While many brothers are monks, many monks are priests, and some brothers live non-cloistered lives, in the sciences, perhaps the best known would be Brother Guy Consolmagno who is a Jesuit brother and the Vatican astronomer.

[sangnoir]

I'd argue the best known monk in the sciences is Gregor Mendel , who was an Augustinian friar and genetics research pioneer.

As an aside, it always rubs me the wrong way when people insinuate the (Catholic) church is anti-science when the long list of contributions to science says otherwise.

[dhosek]

True that. I was thinking the best-known living brother in the sciences.

Plus, I've met Brother Guy. He's really cool.

[starpilot]

When I was in college in engineering, I noticed a woman dressed in a sister's outfit always in the labs, I think she was studying EE? She was running PSpice. Very interesting.

[dhosek]

I've known a large number of Catholic sisters over the years. They've been, without exception, some of the most interesting people I've ever known. When my mom was in the hospital last year, she had regular visits from an 89-year-old sister who came just to chat, even though my mom isn't Catholic (and there was no attempt to proselytize, I should add). It as more just a case of she enjoyed being able to provide socialization with the elderly women who were in the hospital.