Professor Porfirio Miel Alino

2013 Chancellor's Award Recipient. College of Marine Environmental Sciences*

Professor Porfirio Miel Aliño is a Professor at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UPMSI) where he heads the Community Ecology Laboratory and is the institute’s Deputy Director for Research.

A prolific author, he has written over 100 technical papers with nearly 50 ISI (International Science Index) published, establishing him as one of the top coral reef scientists in the South East Asian region.

He has participated in the past nine International Coral Reef Symposiums and was recognised for his capacity development work in the region at the ICRS in Cairns last year.

Professor Aliño has received numerous awards including being one of the Ten Outstanding Young Scientists in the Philippines in 1993, and the “Gawad Chanselor Award for Extension Work” in 2000 for his efforts in coral reef management in the Philippines.

In 2003 he won the prestigious Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award under the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), and his publication of the first atlas of Philippine coral reefs was recognised as the NAST Outstanding Book Award for 2005.

He is a member of the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering, and the Asia Pacific Coral Reef Society, the coordinator of the Marine Protected Areas Support Network, a board member of Reef Check Philippines, a member of the National Coral Triangle Initiative Coordinating Committee, and the Philippine Association of Marine Scientists.

Over his 30-year association with the University of the Philippines, he has been instrumental in developing coral reef fisheries and ecological research and has mentored many of the postgraduate students who are now among the best marine scientists in the Philippines.

Professor Aliño received his PhD from James Cook University in 1990 following his earlier studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he obtained a Masters of Science in 1983 and a Bachelor of Science, in 1978.

*Now known as the College of Science and Engineering.