Fr Douglas McGonagle

Father Douglas McGonagle is both a Roman Catholic priest and an Astronomer. Fr Doug received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in AD 1995. As a graduate student he studied the role of the element Nitrogen in the chemical evolution of interstellar molecular clouds where stars form. After receiving his Ph.D., Fr Doug continued at UMass Amherst as a Postdoctoral Fellow working on the Large Millimeter-wave Telescope (LMT), which was a joint project between UMass and the government of Mexico. In 1996 Fr Doug was accepted as a seminarian by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts. He did his theological studies at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts. While a seminarian, Fr Doug continued to work on the LMT project, made contributions to the study of nitrogen bearing molecules in comets and was given a two-year appointment as an adjunct faculty of Astronomy (without compensation) at UMass. In 2000, Fr Doug received his Master of Divinity and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Springfield. Fr Doug has served as a curate in several parishes before returning to UMass Amherst as the Director of the Newman Catholic Center. Fr Doug is currently the pastor of Most Holy Redeemer parish in Hadley Massachusetts.