Nancy D Kolenda
Nancy D. Kolenda | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 30, 1948 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | April 21, 2025 East Norriton, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Residence | Norristown, PA, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Editor of Frontier Perspectives |
Nancy Dolores Kolenda (March 30, 1948 – April 21, 2025) was an American science administrator and editor who served as director of the Center for Frontier Sciences at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and as editor of the center's journal Frontier Perspectives.
Biography
Kolenda was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 30, 1948. She settled in East Norriton, Pennsylvania, in 1969 and lived in the Norristown area for the remainder of her life.
For approximately thirteen years she directed the Center for Frontier Sciences at Temple University. The center had been founded in 1987 by Richard J. Fox, a member and former chairman of the Temple University Board of Trustees, to give scientists a forum for ideas that fell outside the scientific mainstream. In addition to her work at Temple, Kolenda served as president of the Temple University Hospital Auxiliary and as a Republican committeewoman for East Norriton Township.
Kolenda died in East Norriton, Pennsylvania, on April 21, 2025, at the age of 77.
Work
As director of the Center for Frontier Sciences, Kolenda oversaw an interdisciplinary forum in which internationally recognized researchers presented and critically examined novel ideas in science, medicine, and technology, including concepts initially regarded as outside prevailing scientific views. She described the center as "an incubator" that took no position on the ideas it hosted but instead provided an open forum for their discussion.
The center published the semi-annual journal Frontier Perspectives, which Kolenda edited. The journal circulated internationally and carried original multidisciplinary articles ranging from physics and engineering to biology and medicine, along with reports on center events, book reviews, letters, and brief communications.
During her tenure she followed the growing acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine, and she contributed to public discussion of clinical research and biofeedback, including participation in a panel of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy around 2000.