Los Baños, Laguna. San Pablo City’s native son, Gabriel O. Romero, PhD, was recently awarded the prestigious UPLB Outstanding Alumni Award.
Dr. Romero is a crop biotechnologist and seedsman who has impacted the advancement of agriculture in the Philippines. Among his many achievements include the cloning and characterization of the rice glucanase gene family and the molecular mapping of tungro resistance that resulted in the development of rice elite lines that are resistant to disease and insect infestation.
Four hundred thousand (400,000) corn farmers reaped the benefits of Dr. Romero’ stewardship in the campaign against the proliferation of low quality and counterfeit biotech corn seeds. He is a tireless advocate of biotechnology and the seed industry. He promoted partnerships between the government and various stakeholders in food and nutrition security.
In the last four years, Dr. Romero has been busy shedding light on the importance of plant breeding innovations among various stakeholders including researchers and policy makers. He campaigns about the importance of crop biotechnology among the nutrition community.
The 2004 Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) and JCI San Pablo 7 Lakes Community Outstanding Young Achievers (COYA) awardee currently serves as the Executive Director for the Philippine Seed Industry Association (PSIA) the objective of which is to provide quality seeds to farmers in order to help improve their income.
Dr. Romero and his family, wife Marissa, who is a renowned scientist in her own right, daughter Nicole, who is a Medical Doctor, and son Justin, currently live in Nueva Ecija.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
