Five UP Diliman (UPD) faculty members were among this year’s Top 100 Asian Scientists.

Of the five, four are from the UPD College of Science (CS) and one is from the UPD College of Engineering (COE).

From the CS are Mario Juan A. Aurelio, PhD of the National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS); Pia D. Bagamasbad, PhD of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB); Allan Gil S. Fernando, PhD of NIGS; and Aletta T. Yñiguez, PhD of the Marine Science Institute (MSI). Rinlee Butch M. Cervera, PhD is from the COE Department of Mining, Metallurgical, and Materials Engineering (DMMME).

Aurelio, Fernando, and Yñiguez were selected for the environmental sciences discipline, while Bagamasbad and Cervera were chosen for biomedical sciences and engineering, respectively.

The former NIGS director (2016 – 2022), Aurelio is the first Filipino to be elected to the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority.

He was conferred the 2022 Gregorio Y. Zara Award for Basic Research by the Philippine Association for Advancement of Science and Technology (PhilAAST) for his contributions to structural geology and geodynamics education.

Meanwhile, Bagamasbad was recognized with the 2022 The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) award for spearheading RT-PCR training for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, to support the Department of Health’s COVID-19 response.

Bagamasbad is the NIMBB director and concurrently serves as the principal investigator of the institute’s Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory.

Fernando was awarded the 2022 National Research Council of the Philippines Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to earth and space sciences. He is co-head of the NIGS Nannoworks Laboratory and was the NIGS deputy director of academic affairs (2016 – January 2022).

Yñiguez was among the 2022 TOWNS for her contributions to marine science research. She works with local communities to advocate sustainable fishing practices. Yñiguez has collaborated with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and proposed the use of artificial intelligence as an early-warning system for harmful algal blooms.

Yñiguez, whose research interests are marine ecology, ecological modeling, and dynamics of marine ecosystem, is the principal investigator of the MSI Biological Oceanography and Modeling of Ecosystem Laboratory. 

Cervera received the 2022 David M. Consunji Award for Engineering Research from PhilAAST for advancing research on energy storage and conversion devices, waste-to-energy applications, and green materials.

A professor of materials engineering at the DMMME, Cervera is the current program coordinator of the Energy Engineering Graduate Program and laboratory head of the DMMME Energy Storage and Conversion Materials Research Laboratory.

Published by Singapore-based Asian Scientist Magazine (ASM), the Asian Scientist 100 is an annual listing of researchers, academicians, innovators and business leaders from the Asia-Pacific region who have received a national or international prize in the preceding year of their scientific research, or those who have made significant contributions in scientific discovery or leadership that benefited either the academia or the industry.

The ASM is an award-winning science and technology magazine that highlights research and development news stories from Asia to a global audience. 

In an online article published by ASM on May 29 (https://www.asianscientist.com/as100/), ASM Chief Executive Officer and Publisher Juliana Chan said, “The honorees featured in this year’s list have worked relentlessly and harnessed science to improve the lives of the people around them and the environment we live in.”