Eugenia del Pino

Eugenia Maria del Pino Veintimilla (born 1945, Quito, Ecuador) is a developmental biologist at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador) in Quito. She was the first Ecuadorian citizen to be elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (2006).

Biography

Del Pino was born, and grew up in Quito, Ecuador. She received a Licentiate Degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador,Quito 1967. She then studied in the United States of America and holds a M.Sc. Vassar College, 1969, and a Ph.D. Emory University, 1972. Upon completion of the doctorate she returned to Ecuador and joined the faculty the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito. She is professor of Biology since 1972–present. She served as Head of Biological Sciences, from 1973-1975. With a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation she did research at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, 1984-1985. She was Fulbright Fellow at the laboratory of Prof. Joseph Gall, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1990.

Research and Career

At her return to Ecuador after her doctoral studies, she chose a local frog for study, the Andean marsupial frog, Gastrotheca riobambae, that then occurred in the gardens of the university in Quito. She studied the reproductive and developmental adaptations of this frog in comparison with other tropical frogs, and the frog Xenopus laevis, a frog widely used for developmental studies. Her comparative studies added greatly to our understanding of the relationship between evolution and embryonic development. She combines research with teaching of Developmental Biology in Ecuador.

Early in her career she became interested in education for conservation of the Galapagos Archipelago. She helped the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands in the establishment of a program of scholarships for Ecuadorian students in the Galapagos Islands. She served as Vice President of the Charles Darwin Foundation for several years in the 1990s.

Her work for the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands and her position as the only Ecuadorian citizen to have achieved international recognition in science, have made her a figure of national importance in Ecuador.

Awards

• Diploma for the Education and Conservation Efforts in the Galapagos Islands, The World Wildlife Fund. Gland, Switzerland, 1986.
• Medal given by the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands, 1999
• Founding Member Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Biología.
• Honorary foreign Member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 1996.
• Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL) 1987.
• Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) 1989.
• L’OREAL-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Latin America, 2000.
• Sheth Distinguished International Emory Alumni Award, 2003.
• “Pluma de la Dignidad” Award givem by the National Association of Journalists of Ecuador, 2003.
• TWAS Medal Lecture, The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 2005.
• Eugenio Espejo Medal on the Sciences given by the Council and the Major of Quito, 2005.
• Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006.
• Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006.

Further reading

• Reflections on being a Scientist and a teacher of Science in Ecuador. April 6, 2006. Available at http://agora.forwomeninscience.com/index.php/2006/04/reflections-on-being-a-scientist-and-a-teacher-of-science-in-ecuador/
• Valiente, G. Noted biologist Eugenia del Pino 72G. Who needs mice when you have marsupial tree frogs? Emory Magazine. Spring 2007. Available at http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/spring2007/del_pino.htm
• Mossman, K. Profile of Eugenia M. del Pino. PNAS October 30, 2007. Vol. 104: 17249-17251. Available at http://www.pnas.org/content/104/44/17249.full?sid=390ed2d2-7bd8-40c9-8ebe-5a94dabf557b

External links

• Eugenia M. del Pino, Ph.D., Faculty page,School of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador,
• Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador