Appointment of bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Appointment of ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences
Appointment of bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, United States of America, the Reverend William D. Byrne, of the clergy of the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., until now parish priest of the Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac.
Curriculum vitae
Bishop-elect William D. Byrne was born on 26 September 1964 in Washington, D.C., in the archdiocese of the same name. In 1986 he obtained a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, as a student of the Pontifical North American College (1989-1994).
Since priestly ordination he has held the following offices: parish vicar of the Shrine of the Little Flower parish in Bethesda (1994-1995) and of the Shrine of Saint Jude parish in Rockville (1995-1999); chaplain of the University of Maryland Catholic Student Centre in College Park (1999-2007); parish priest of the Saint Peter parish in Washington (2007-2015) and of the Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac (from 2015 to the present); secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns (2009-2015), and member of the Formation Board (since 2002), the Priest Personnel Assignment Board (2003-2006), the presbyteral council (2006-2009) and the Board of Directors of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary (2010-2015).
Appointment of ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences
The Holy Father has appointed Professor José Nelson Onuchic, professor of molecular biophysics at the Rice University of Houston, United States of America, as ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Curriculum vitae
Professor José Nelson Onuchic was born on 17 January in São Paulo, Brazil, where he graduated in electrical engineering in 1980, in physics in 1981 and in applied physics in 1982. He concluded his research doctorate in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, United States of America, in 1987. After a brief period of post-doctoral study in Santa Barbara, California, he taught at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, from 1987 to 1990, the year in which he returned to the United States, where he taught in the University of San Diego, California, until 2011. He then transferred to Rice University in Houston, Texas, to teach physics and astronomy, chemistry and biosciences. He is co-director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics. He has received various honours for his studies, including the Beckman Young Investigators Award in 1992; he was a member of the American Physical Society in 1995 and of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2006, as well as of the Academia Brasileira de Ciências in 2009. He is particularly concerned with the study of theoretical methods on the borderline between physics and biology, with effects also on human biology and genomics.
