Name: Dr.

Ame Garong
Profession: Museum Researcher at National Museum of the Philippines
Invention: Author of the book “Ancient Filipino Diet”
first study of Filipino food in pre-history before colonizers or any foreign influence
arrived in the Philippines which was written to explore and understand the prehistoric
diet of our ancestors
 Using isotope analysis, she reconstructed the diet from the archaeological human
remains from different burial sites in the Philippines. Based on the bone, hair, muscle
samples and plant and animal tissues, Garong traced the diet of ancient Filipinos.
Filipinos in the pre-colonial and early colonial past ate mostly aquatic resources (such as
marine fish, freshwater shellfish, and coral reef resources). Some samples showed that
the ancient Filipinos practiced prolonged breast feeding.
Awards: N/A
Educ Bg: She holds a Doctor of Science degree from Kyushu University, Japan. She is presently a
museum researcher at the National Museum of the Philippines where she works at the
Archaeology Division. She has written a number of papers on archaeology for scholarly
journals and has presented papers at international anthropological and archaeological
conferences. Ancient Filipino Diet is based on her doctoral dissertation which was
presented to the Kyushu University Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies in
2010.

Reference: https://www.filipinofoodcrawl.com/merch/ancient-filipino-diet

Name: Raymundo Punongbayan

Profession:
 Dr. Punongbayan served as the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology (PHIVOCS) from 1983 to 2002.
 Also served as governor of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC)
 He was also a professor, consultant, public servantand author of many scientific
papers.
Area of Specializarion: Geology, Petrography, Petrology, Photogeology, Remote Sensing,
Structural Geology, Tectonics
Prominent contribution/ invention:
 Dr. Punongbayan became popular after handling two well-known calamities, the
Luzon earthquake inJuly 16, 1990 and the Pinatubo eruption in 1991.
 He was best remembered as the one who mobilized histeam for digging a 5-meter-
deep drainage channel on the side of Mt. Pinatubo volcano, 10 years after its eruption
—to spill off about a quarter of the swollen volcanic lake that formed since the
eruption. 
Awards:
 Sergy Soloviev Medal of European Geological Society in 2003 - for his exceptional
knowledge and skills in understanding explosive volcanic eruptions which led to the
saving of thousands of lives during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991.
 UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction in 2001
 Lingkod Bayan Presidential Award in 1996
 Likas Yaman Award for Studies on Mangrove Areas in the Philippine, MNR, 1979
Educ Bg:
  Dr. Punongbayan graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geology degree from the
University of the Philippines Diliman in 1960 (Received Scholarship in Petroleum
Geology, UP, Jose Maria Feliciano, 1957-1959)
 He obtained his doctorate degree in Geology from the University of Colorado 1972.
(Received Scholarship in Geology, Univ. of Colorado, Rockfeller Foundation, 1965-
1969)

References:
https://www.egu.eu/awards-medals/sergey-soloviev/2003/raymundo-s-punongbayan/
http://spheres.dost.gov.ph/profiles/970-raymundo-s-punongbayan

Name: Gavino Trono

Profession:
 National Scientist
 He served as a professor at the Department of Botany of the University of the
Philippines (UP) Diliman, and later at the UP Marine Science Institute since 1981 and
is currently a Professor Emeritus of the Marine Science Institute.
 He later served as a technical consultant and training director for various training
courses on seaweed farming organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO),
 Prof. Trono also served as a consultant or technical adviser to various government
agencies in the Philippines, the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines
(SIAP)—as well as international institutions like SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department,
FAO (Aquaculture, Seaweed R&D), Commission on Ecology, International Union for
the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), on various areas of
scientific concerns.
 Prof. Trono was elected Academician of the National Academy of Science and
Technology (NAST), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the
Philippines in 2008.
 His scientific career reached the highest point when he was conferred with the rank of
a National Scientist by the Philippine National Government on 13 March 2014.
Prominent Cintribution/Invention:
 His earlier publications on algal floristics of different parts of the Philippines laid the
foundation for biodiversity research on marine macroalgae in the Philippines.
 His other legacies include the establishment of the Gregorio T. Velasquez
Phycological Herbarium (MSI), the country largest collection of marine algal
materials, at the Marine Science Institute.
 His three volumes on Field Guide and Atlas of the Seaweed Resources of the
Philippines, published in 1997, 2004 and 2017, remain the most authoritative
references for the taxonomic study of Philippine marine algae.
 “Father of Eucheuma/ Kappaphycus Farming”.
Awards:
 He is a recipient of more than 35 national and international honors, awards, citations,
and recognitions, including:
• Likas-Yaman Award, Ministry of Natural Resources, Philippines (1978)
• Ralph Nubla Professorial Chair in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University
of the Philippines (1981)
• Golden Jubilee Professorial Chair, University of the Philippines (1987)
• Award of Recognition, Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (1992)
 • President’s Award for Outstanding Publication, University of the Philippines (1993)
• Elvira O. Tan Memorial Award for Outstanding Research in Marine Fisheries,
Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resources Research and Development
(PCARRD) (1994)
• Second Prize Winner, MARINALG International Award for outstanding work made
at XIVth International Seaweed Symposium, France (1994)
• Most Outstanding Researcher of the University of the Philippines for 1996, Gawad
Tsanselor (1996)
• Best Published Book for 1998, Gawad Tsanselor, University of the Philippines
(1998)
• 2006 Outstanding Book Award, National Academy of Science and Technology
(NAST), Philippines (2006).

Educational Bg:
 He obtained his B.S. (Botany) from the University of the Philippines, Diliman,
Quezon City in 1954
 M.S. from Araneta University in 1961
 Ph.D. in Marine Botany from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA in
1968

References: https://philjournalsci.dost.gov.ph/images/pdf/pjs_pdf/vol151_S1_Marine_Botany/
Natl_Scientist_Gavino_Trono_Jr_.pdf

FOREIGN INVENTOR

Name: Dr. Norman E. Borlaug

Profession: American agricultural scientist, plant pathologist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for
Peace in 1970. Known as the “Father of the Green Revolution,” 
Prominent Invention/ Contribution:
 Developed successive generations of wheat varieties with broad and stable disease
resistance that were adaptable to a wide range of growing conditions with exceedingly
high yield potential.
 The new wheat varieties, alongside improved crop management practices, transformed
agricultural production in Mexico during the 1940s and 1950s and later in Asia and
Latin America. The increased production helped combat hunger and famine, crediting
Borlaug with saving “more lives than any other person who has ever lived.”
Awards:
 Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world.
As founder of the World Food Prize, he in turn recognized agricultural research and
technologies to convince leaders to support them.
 In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Borlaug has received extensive recognition
from universities and organizations in six countries: Canada, India, Mexico, Norway,
Pakistan, the United States.
  In 1968 he received an especially satisfying tribute when the people of Ciudad
Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, in whose area he did some of his first experimenting,
named a street in his honor.

Educ. Bg:
 Borlaug studied plant biology and forestry at the University of Minnesota and earned a
Ph.D. in plant pathology there in 1942. 

Reference:
https://www.britannica.com/event/green-revolution
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1970/borlaug/biographical/