By George Spencer – On Wisconsin magazine –
Odysseus overcame many obstacles during his 10-year voyage home. The hero of Homer’s ancient epic The Odyssey might have a modern-day counterpart — computer scientist Brent Seales MS’88, PhD’91.
A professor at the University of Kentucky–Lexington, Seales has made it his life’s work to accomplish a seemingly impossible task — to “virtually unwrap” hundreds, possibly thousands, of priceless scrolls that were buried and carbonized when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.
Seales grew up in what he calls “a very strong and devout Christian tradition.” He wants as much ancient knowledge translated as soon as possible, but his deepest hope is to find early Christian writings.
“My passion is more on religious material from the era, because the first century was the cradle of Christianity, a phenomenal point in human history.