Father Austriaco completed his bachelor’s degree (B.S.E.) in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, earned his Ph.D. in biology from M.I.T. where he was a fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and received his Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), magna cum laude, at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He was ordained in May of 2004.
Father Austriaco currently serves as an Associate Professor of Biology and of Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. His NIH-funded research laboratory at Providence College is investigating the genetics of programmed cell death using the yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, as model organisms (www.austriacolab.com).
Papers describing his scientific research have been published in PLoS ONE, FEMS Yeast Research, Cell, the Journal of Cell Biology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, among others. His essays in bioethics have been published in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Studia Moralia, Ethics and Medics, and the Linacre Quarterly. His first book, Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics, was published by the Catholic University of America Press. It was recognized as a 2012 Choice outstanding academic title by the Association of College and Research Libraries.