Professor Grecebio Jonathan D. Alejandro, Dr. rer. nat. and Prof. Mafel C. Ysrael, PhD are recipients of the 2020 awards from the Philippine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Alejandro is the PSBMB 2020 Awardee for Research, while Ysrael is the awardee for Education.
Alejandro, a multi-awarded botanist, the Full Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences of the College of Science. He is also the Director of the Office for Graduate Research of the Graduate School. Among his landmark researches are the DNA barcoding of Philippine flora and fauna, which has since created a reliable database now used by scientists nationwide.
Ysrael, a retired faculty member of the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy, teaches at the UST Graduate School. Apart from being a researcher, she was also a University official, having served a stint as Executive Assistant of the Office of the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs.
Both Alejandro and Ysrael are researchers at the UST Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences.
The PSBMB is “committed to: upgrade knowledge in biochemistry by encouraging research and education and by establishing communication and exchange of professional knowledge among members as well as with other biochemists abroad, and establish means by which biochemistry could be utilized for the improvement of the socio-economic and health conditions of the country.” Its members include degree holders in biochemistry, chemistry, biology, pharmacy, medicine, and other related disciplines and who are teaching and/or researching in related fields.