John F. Wippel is an American Catholic priest of the Diocese of Steubenville, who is a leading authority on the metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. He has won the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1981, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and has been named a Professor of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. He is currently the Theodore Basselin Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.