ALT Dr. Helen T. Yap graduated from the University of the Philippines - Diliman in 1979 with a degree in BSc Marine Biology (magna cum laude). In 1987, she also obtained her doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) from Wilhelm-Pieck University. She was the Vice-Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility and Vice-Chair of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), an advisory body to the United Nations.

ALT Among the many awards she has received are the Third World Academy of Science-National Academy of Science and Technology Science Prize, Outstanding Young Scientist, Outstanding Professional Awardee of the UP Alumni Association, Chancellor’s Award for Most Outstanding Researcher, and the Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS). She was also a finalist for the 7th Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. Throughout the years, she has built a career doing ecological experiments and research, mostly underwater. She developed an interest in complex systems, applying this to a “ONE-ECOSYSTEM” perspective, encompassing terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats, and the quality of life of rural human populations.

ALT Dr. Gavino Trono Jr. was born on November 11, 1931 in La Castellana, Negros Occidental. In 1954, he graduated with a degree in Botany from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Inspired by his late mentor Dr. Gregorio T. Velasquez, Dr. Trono went on to pursue a life dedicated to the development of seaweed resources of the Philippines and the tropical western Pacific region. He took up his master’s degree in Agricultural Botany at Araneta University and then migrated to Hawaii to pursue his Ph.D. in Botany at the University of Hawaii. In his doctoral studies, on the taxonomy and ecology of tropical algae, he was supervised by one of the leaders in psychology, the late Dr. Maxwell C. Doty. His dissertation is considered to be among the most important body of work on the diversity and ecology of algae in Micronesia. In these publications, Dr. Trono described 11 new seaweed taxa, eight of which are currently accepted taxonomically.

ALT A leader of phycological research in the Philippines, Dr. Trono implemented over 45 research and development projects and studies on seaweeds. The results have been communicated in both science and society through scientific meetings, consultations, and as published papers in both local and international journals. He has been actively involved in local and international phycological, botanical, and systematics communities. He is a charter member of the Philippine Botanical Society and Association of Systematic Biologists in the Philippines and has served as chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Phycological Society of Asia, as well as Chairman of the National Organizing Committee of the 16th International Seaweed Symposium in 1998. Dr. Trono has also served as director, chairman, and senior technical consultant of various workshops on the taxonomy, ecology, and mariculture of seaweeds in Southeast Asia mostly under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

ALT Dr. Trono has actively taught and mentored generations of marine scientists, especially psychologists at the UP Botany department and UP MSI. He has mentored a total of five Ph.D. students and over 30 master's students. Decades after his retirement, and as Professor Emeritus, Dr. Trono continues to mentor and advise graduate students, the most recent of whom are Najeen Arabelle Rula and Dr. Wilfred John E. Santiañez. Many of his advisees are now serving or have served leadership positions in various local, regional, and international organizations as professors, country and regional senior technical consultants, and senior researchers in phycology and marine sciences.

ALT Dr. Trono’s dedicated and passionate work on the advancement of phycological research and the development of seaweed resources in the Philippines and tropical western Pacific region gained him both international and local recognition. To honor his contribution to phycology, two seaweed taxa—the red seaweed species Chondrophycus tronoi (Ganzon-Fortes) K.W. Nam and the brown seaweed genus Tronoella Santiañez & Kogame were named after Dr. Trono, leaving a legacy in the world of natural history sciences forever.