Professor is 1st Brazil-based Filipino to receive president’l award

MANILA, Philippines - Araneta University graduate Dr. Delia Rodriguez-Amaya became the first Filipino based in Brazil to receive the Pamana ng Pilipino Award for her achievements in food science and technology.

The award is given to Filipinos who have brought “honor and recognition through excellence and distinction in the pursuit of their work or profession overseas.” It is awarded by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas’ (CFO) Presidential Awards for Individuals and Organizations Overseas.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), President Benigno S. Aquino III conferred the award during rites held last December 2012 at the Rizal Hall of Malacañan Palace.

Dr. Rodriguez-Amaya is a professor of the Faculty of Food Engineering at the University of Campinas, São Paulo. She has authored 231 scientific publications, which are all peer-reviewed and in international circulation.

The DFA said that Dr. Rodriquez-Amaya has also presented more than 240 papers in 25 different countries and has held lectures worldwide. She is a member of the editorial boards of three international journals and two Brazilian journals.

Dr. Rodriguez-Amaya is likewise a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. The DFA said she has been voted president-elect (2012-2014) of the academy, the first woman to be elected to that post.

Among her many awards are the 2010 East-West Center Distinguished Alumni Award; the University of Campinas “Zeferino Vaz” Recognition Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research, which she recived three times (1994, 1997, 2003); the Andre Tosello Award (2005), major award of the Brazilian Society of Food Science and Technology; and the Philippine Association of Food Technologists (PAFT) 50th Anniversary Recognition Award.

Dr. Rodriguez-Amaya graduated Magna Cum Laude from Araneta University, where she was a full scholar. She earned her Master’s degree in Food Science from the University of Hawaii (1966), where she was an East-West Center (EWC) grantee and recipient of the EWC Professional Award for high scholastic achievement.

She also holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry from the University of California, Davis, where she was Board of Regents’ Graduate Intern Fellow.