Ogsila, Kyle Angelo T.

September 20, 2023

STS – A

Ramon Cabanos Barba

- Barba received a scholarship from the University of Georgia where he began conducting
experiments on inducing the flowering of plants using gibberellic acid and potassium nitrate as a
fertilizer. He conducted experiments with help from his friends Jose and Rita Quimson of
Quimara Farms in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. Previously, mangoes were only available in the
Philippines in May; owing to Barba's innovation as initially tested at Quimara Farms, mango trees
can be induced to flower out of season using potassium nitrate and not only in May, which
would lead to fruiting several times a year without harming the plants, drastically elevated the
productivity of the mango farms. Ramon Barba advanced the research on various tropical crops
besides mangoes. His many research breakthroughs include banana micropropagation and tissue
culture of sugarcane and tissue culture of calamansi, all of which have lasting impacts on the
respective agribusiness potentials of these commodities.

Lourdes Jansuy Cruz

- Her work focused on the isolation of peptides from the conotoxins in the snail's venom while
their effects were still unknown. Her research shed light on the effects of conotoxins on the
central nervous system and their connection to muscular paralysis, sleepiness, or drowsiness,
involuntary motion and more. Today, conotoxin peptides are very important and they are
extensively used biochemical probes such as to test calcium channels in neurons and prohibitory
of muscular movement when investigation actions at synapses.

Josefino Cacas Comiso

- Dr. Comiso has been a leading physical scientist with the Goddard Space Flight Center and
NASA since 1979, and has worked on research related to climate change ever since. He was
instrumental on a global project observing the planet for rapidly declining perennial sea ice
cover, and produced a paper on the subject that has been cited over one thousand times. Dr.
Comiso's work has revealed the extraordinary rate at which Arctic ice is affected by global
warming, at approximately three times the intensity of the global average.

Fabillian Millar Dayrit

- Dr. Dayrit’s research interests include natural products chemistry and environmental chemistry.
For natural products, he studies various aspects of the quality of virgin coconut oil. Current
research going on is the potential use of virgin coconut oil (VCO) against Alzheimer’s disease.
Spirulina algae is also being studied for commercial production of cheap fish feed, as well as the
bioengineering of algae to produce more high-value compounds such as phycobili proteins.
Various endemic and Southeast Asian plant species used in traditional medicine are also being
studied for standardization. His scientific works have resulted in various publications in ISI-listed
and non-ISI listed journals and academic awards.

Jose Bejar Cruz, Jr.

- In research, he has made major contributions to the theory and practice of automatic control.
His work in the 1970s and 1980s on the control of leader-follower systems is still considered
one of the major contributions of the half-century in the theory of hierarchical control
systems. Still active in research, he leads a major research effort by a consortium of four
 universities and one company, funded by DARPA, to apply his work on the leader-follower
control problem to the design of optimum strategies for human-automaton resource entity
deployment with potential applications in future combat systems.

Mari-Jo Panganiban Ruiz

- Mari-Jo P. Ruiz was a Filipina mathematician and professor of mathematics at Ateneo de Manila
University. Ruiz specialized in graph theory and operations research. With Jin Akiyama, she was
the author of the book A Day’s Adventure in Math Wonderland (World Scientific, 2008;
translated into 7 other languages).
Rafael Dineros Guerrero III
- He was recognized because of his scientific and technical contributions to the growth of Sex
Reversal and Hatchery Techniques that help the commercial fabrication of high yielding market-
size tilapia in the Philippines and other nations.

Lilian Formalejo Patena

- Lilian Pateña is a Filipino scientist who discovered a breed of calamansi and seedless pomelo and
discovered micropropagation which established the banana industry in the Philippines. She is
also an inventor of leaf-bud cutting in cassava. She was recognized as one of The Outstanding
Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) in 1998, Women of Distinction for Science and
Technology in 1995, and Outstanding Young Scientist in 1990.

Gregory Ligot Tangonan

- Gregory is a Filipino inventor of analog messaging in sending messages using Fiber Optics and
Digitalization for its processing. His patent is called Stress bimorph mems switches and methods
of making same. Because of his works to our current technologies he gave us a groundbreaking
advances in ultra-high-performance circuitry, and innovative computing and communications.
His research and inventions in the field of science and technology operate in space, on aircraft, in
automobiles, and in a variety of consumer products that make our world safer, support our
national security and improve our quality of life. Without it, we would not be much safer than
we used to, such inventions on aircraft and automobiles require this support for the betterment
of our national security and most importantly our quality of life

Enrique Mapua Ostera Jr.

- Dr. Enrique M. Ostrea was recognized for his significant contributions in the field of pediatrics,
specifically in neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, neonatal drug addiction and his pioneering work on
the detection of fetal exposure to drugs, tobacco smoke, alcohol and environmental toxicants by
analysis of meconium. Among his outstanding works are the development of the meconium
drug test, one of the most sensitive tests to detect fetal exposure to illicit drugs by the analysis
of meconium; the development of an affordable Philippine-made ventilator for sick newborn
infants; his US NIH funded studies in the Philippines on fetal exposure to environmental
pesticides and its long term effect on the neurobehavioral development of infants and children
and his collaborative study on food supplementation of pre-school Filipino children with
Moringa-enriched snacks which resulted in improvement in their IQ. Although he has chosen to
live abroad, he has remained committed to the advancement of science in the Philippines. A
significant portion of his research works were done in the Philippines beginning in 2002 in
collaboration with local hospitals and the UP National Institutes of Health. This collaboration
served as impetus for local scientific activities and has opened many opportunities for Filipino
 neonatologists and young pediatricians to be trained under his tutelage and obtain training
abroad.

Caesar A. Saloma
- Saloma was recognized for his contributions to photonics and signal processing that were
accomplished with colleagues and students at the National Institute of Physics. led the
development of a method to generate high-contrast images of semiconductor sites via one
photon optical beam-induced current imaging and confocal reflectance microscopy. The project
received a US patent (No. 7,235,988) on 26 June 2007. He has published more than 100 papers
in leading photonics, applied physics and multidisciplinary journals in the US and Europe. His
efforts resulted in the development of novel and cost-effective / non-invasive method
techniques in optical signal recovery, retrieval and identifying microscopic defects in integrated
circuits (IC) enabling the accurate identification of circuit defects by producing a high-contrast
image map that distinguishes semiconductor, metal and dielectric sites from each other. The
pioneering work of his team on the use of the hydrogen Raman shifter as a light source for two-
color two-photon excitation microscopy was also awarded a US patent (No. 8,227,256 B2) on 24
July 2012.

Edgardo Gomez
- Gomez saw the need to protect the Philippine archipelago's vast marine resources in particular
that of coral reefs. He led the world's first national-scale assessment of damage to coral reefs
leading to international conservation initiatives such as the replanting of corals. He also
pioneered giant clam (Tridacna gigas) breeding stationed in Bolinao and other protective areas
for coastal communities of the Philippines. Additionally, he took part in creating the baseline
map of the Philippines, and provided information to the Philippine government during talks over
the territorial disputes in the Spratly Islands. In 2007, he pioneered the study on ocean
acidification caused by increased levels of absorbed carbon dioxide in the ocean.

William Padolina
- Dr. William G. Padolina is recognized for his significant contributions in the field of natural
products chemistry, coconut chemistry, biotechnology and in management of research and
development. Among his contributions are the following: (1) isolation and identification of new
germacranolide sesquiterpene lactones with complex structural features, including bioactive
compounds from Philippine medicinal plants with anti-allergy and insecticidal activity; (2)
synthesis of new derivatives from coconut fatty acids, such as fatty alkylethers and glyceryl
ethers, with potential uses in the oleochemical industry; (3) led in the development of
biotechnology as a researcher and as leader and has served in international expert panels in
biotechnology, biosafety, technology transfer and advisory committees.

Angel Alcala
- Alcala is known for his fieldwork to build sanctuaries and to promote biodiversity in the aquatic
ecosystems of the Philippines. Alcala published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and books
and his biological contributions to the environment and ecosystems have made him a renowned
figure of natural sciences in the Philippines. His studies correlated the efforts of protective
environmental practices with the effects of either continuing or ceasing those regulations.
Incidents of fishing are common consequences when ocean space and resources are
available and not properly managed. These studies were primarily conducted near coral
reefs of Sumilon Island located in the central Philippines. Alcala concluded how maximizing
 conservation and environmental efforts near these coral reefs reduced fishing and stabilized
struggling fish species that faced the increased loss of habitat.

Emil Q. Javier
- A pioneering plant geneticist and agronomist, Javier was conferred the rank of National Scientist
of the Philippines in recognition of his contributions to the field of agriculture. Beyond research
and academic leadership, Javier is also recognized for promoting sound agricultural policies and
programs, utilizing climate-resilient and environmentally-friendly agricultural innovations, and
improving governance to enhance the livelihood of Filipino farmers and fisherfolk.