On April 1, 2018, "60 Minutes" aired a story that featured the research of W. Brent Seales, Ph.D., chair and professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Computer Science. The segment, "The Scrolls of Herculaneum," discussed the history of the Herculaneum library, the race to open the ancient scrolls and Seales' recent success virtually unwrapping a burned 1,700-year old scroll of the biblical book of Leviticus. You can watch the segment or read the transcript here.
Dr. Seales has been teaching and mentoring students in computer science at the University of Kentucky since 1991. The focus of his research for the past 20 years has been on restoring and redeeming cultural and historical artifacts from the ravages of time. The challenge of rescuing texts that may be central to biblical scholarship and the formation of the ancient world is a primary passion. Learn about his Digital Restoration Initiative here.
As a result of his innovations, Dr. Seales has become renowned by collectors and curators across the globe, earning a reputation as “the guy who can read the unreadable.” His breakthrough work on the scroll from En-Gedi received international recognition and was featured in Science Advances, the New York Times, Le Monde and the Times of London. Learn more about Dr. Seales' work with the En-Gedi scroll here.
Dr. Seales has been a visiting scientists at Google France, an invited lecturer at the Institut de France and a guest lecturer for the Friends of Herculaneum Societies in Oxford, England; Naples, Italy; and The Sorbonne, Paris.