Pope Francis has appointed Emmanuel Charpentier, director of the Berlin Max Planck Center for Research in Pathology and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Holy See announced on Tuesday that the head of the Catholic Church has appointed a French microbiologist as an ordinary member.
Academic scholars advise the Pope. According to the Vatican, it serves to promote progress in the natural sciences and to ensure an exchange between faith and science.
Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller (Social Democratic Party) congratulated the world: “The appointment of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences undoubtedly represents a special tribute to the outstanding scholar Emmanuel Charpentier, who has received many honours.”
She said in a letter from the Senate chancellery that the appointment is this third year from the region. Accordingly, the head of the Catholic Church has already appointed Jutta Alminger (head of the Berlin Science Center for Social Research) and climate researcher Otmar Edenhofer (director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research and professor at the Technical University of Berlin) on the commission. .
Emmanuel Charpentier founded the Max Planck Research Center in 2018 and has headed it ever since. The institute researches pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Experts consider regulatory mechanisms in infection and immune processes.
Charpentier was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2020 for co-development of the Crispr/Cas9 gene scissors.