John Polkinghorne – a dear academic, theological and personal friend Michael Welker     In 1993 the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, under the leadership of Dan Hardy, sponsored a four-year consultation in which an interdisciplinary group of scholars (including the fields of cosmology, physics, biology, chemistry, environmental studies, philosophy, religious studies and theology) moved from an exchange via different disciplinary and individual academic approaches to the dialogue between science and theology. This is where John Polkinghorne and I met and first became intellectual friends and then, in the course of several years, also personal friends.   Together we developed international and interdisciplinary consultations and conferences, cooperated in the publication of articles and books, and even wrote one book together. John received the prestigious Von Humboldt Research