Professor Philipina A. Marcelo, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, is returning to the United States of America to study Innovation and Sustainability Management, as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation (PAEF) or Fulbright Philippines. This was made known in an announcement made by PAEF Secretariat Executive Director Julio S. Amador III. Marcelo will be hosted by The Pennsylvania State University and will join 11 other 2021-2022 fellows in Penn State.
In an interview with the Communications Bureau, Marcelo is training her sights on the forthcoming UST Sta. Rosa campus, which is being eyed as the UST brand’s innovation hub. With the fellowship starting in August 2021, Marcelo also expects to benchmark best practices on innovation and sustainability management, in universities such as her alma mater, Cornell University. In December 2020, the University held the groundbreaking ceremonies for the UST-Tony Tan Caktiong Innovation Center in UST Sta. Rosa. The famed founder of Jollibee Foods Corporation is an alumnus of the University’s Chemical Engineering program and is an honoris causa recipient of UST.
With the award, Marcelo becomes a two-time Fulbrighter, having received the Fulbright-Philippine Agriculture Scholarship Grant from 2002-2007, which led to her earning the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Food Science and Technology from Cornell University. Since her return to UST in 2008, she has been a researcher of the Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences and a faculty member of the Department of Chemical Engineering. In 2012, she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, which over the last nine years has taken the initiative to make the six engineering programs of UST both locally and internationally comparable.
Among the Faculty’s accolades over the past nine years are the Full Accreditation of all six programs by the Philippine Technological Council, the country’s provisional member of the Washington Accord; the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance Group certification for BSc Chemical Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineeirng; the Commission on Higher Education Center of Excellence (Chemical Engineering) and Center of Development (Civil, Electrical, Electronics, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering); the Level III Re-Accreditation by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAASCU) and the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) recognitions for all six programs.
The Faculty also pioneered the granting of international double degrees, with the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree jointly awarded by UST and the Catholic University of America, and the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering major in Metallurgical Engineering awarded by UST and Curtin University’s Western Australian School of Mines.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship aims to expose fellows to global leaders, fellow academics, policy-makers, and people from different countries as they share approaches to common issues and problems in the different regions. The fellowship, which also allows international fellows to learn about U.S. culture and society, is sponsored by the United States Department of State and caters to young and mid-career professionals. The fellowship, which lasts for ten months to a year, includes the Humphrey Seminar, Academic Enrichment, Professional Development, and the Washington Global Leadership Forum.
