Rev. Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., completed his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering, summa cum laude, at the University of Pennsylvania, and then earned his Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. where he was a fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). After his doctoral studies, he did a fellowship at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University College London, where he was a fellow of the International Human Frontier Science Program (IHFSP).
Fr. Austriaco was ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers in May of 2004. He earned his Pontifical Bachelor of Theology (S.T.B) and then his License in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) in Moral Theology, both summa cum laude, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.Th.D.) at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, in 2015. He completed his M.B.A. at Providence College in 2020.
Fr. Austriaco currently serves as Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Sacred Theology at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the Philippines, and Director of ThomisticEvolution.org. From 2005 to 2022, Fr. Austriaco served on the faculty of Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States. His laboratory at UST is developing a yeast delivery platform for both a COVID-19 vaccine and an ASFV vaccine for the Philippines. Prior to the pandemic, his research team interrogated the genetics of programmed cell death using the yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, as model organisms.
Fr. Austriaco has published numerous research papers in high-impact journals in science, philosophy and theology. His first book, Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics, was published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2011. It was recognized as a 2012 Choice outstanding academic title by the Association of College and Research Libraries. A second edition of the book was just published. Fr. Austriaco recently received a 2021 Outstanding Scientific Paper Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines for a research paper describing a mobility-guided model for the COVID-19 pandemic in Metro Manila. The scientific paper was published in the Philippine Journal of Science.
Fr. Austriaco is also a fellow of OCTA Research, an independent team of data analysts that provides providing expert data analysis, forecasts, and recommendations for pandemic management for the national and local government officials in the Philippines. Most recently, he was appointed to the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC), an advisory council to the President of the Philippines, where he is a member of the subcommittee on healthcare. Finally, Fr. Austriaco is a Balik Scientist of the Republic of the Philippines.
