A collaborative paper on the design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a photobioreactor for the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris (Beijerinck) co-authored by MNH curator for algae Dr. Milagrosa M. Goss recently won the NAST Outstanding Paper Award last July 9, 2015 during the National Academy of Science and Technology’s Annual Scientific Meeting at the historic Manila Hotel.

At the young age of 36, Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo has probably accomplished more feats than most of her immediate colleagues has done in their entire academic lives. This soft-spoken lady with a medium frame may look ordinarily among a throng of people but few now already know that she is standing among the giants of Philippine science.

Aimee Lynn, the daughter of UPLB-based entomologists Alberto and the late Adelina Barrion has just been awarded on 10 July as one of the country’s Outstanding Young Scientists (OYS) for 2015. The award, given by the National Academy of Science and Technology, is itself a recognition to the excellence and dedication of the Barrions to science; the father-mother-daughter trio are all OYS awardees, a record of some sorts.

A wildlife experts’ team from the UPLB Museum of Natural History attended the Philippine Red List Committee (PRLC) meeting at the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) office in Quezon City last 3 July 2015.

The group, led by Dr. Juan Carlos T Gonzalez, MNH Director and Curator for Birds, also included Dr. Leticia E. Afuang (amphibians and reptiles), James DV. Alvarez (mammals), Jeremy Carlo B. Naredo and David M. General (insects and other invertebrates).

The UPLB Museum of Natural History will display various wood carvings featuring wildlife from different parts of the Philippines as its support to the International Wood Culture Celebration 2015 of the UP Open University this July 8-15, 2015.

Among the wood carvings to be exhibited at the Museum are of birds and mammals made by artisans from Polillo Islands, Quezon; Paete, Laguna, Palawan, Benguet and Mindanao. Most of the items come from the private collections of MNH Director Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez and other Museum curators.

“The Philippines is jam-packed with diverse and threatened species—it’s one of the most astounding regions of biodiversity on Earth.”

This is a simple yet meaningful statement from Dr. Terry Gosliner of the California Academy of Sciences who led the expedition on the Verde Island Passage, delivered at the 2015 celebration of the World Ocean’s Day. What he said about the country’s biodiversity is something that Filipinos can be proud of, beyond his words, Filipinos should really be concerned.

Read on to find out why.

Forensic dipterology (the study and use of two-winged insects or true flies in scientific methods or investigations to solve crime) as a science and its prospects in the Philippines was the subject of the UPLB Museum of Natural History’s latest Biodiversity Seminar held 17 June 2015 at the UPLB MNH Conference Room.

Presenting to nearly 60 people during the seminar, guest speaker Socrates D. Letana from the Institute of Biology, UP Diliman also talked on natural history collections of flies and their importance in forensics.