The University of the Philippines (UP) released the names of the faculty and researchers who were conferred the UP Scientific Productivity Award for CY 2018-2020. Three of the awardees are from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) — Dr. Sheila R. Bonito, Dr. Patricia B. Arinto and Dr. Alexander G. Flor.
Dr. Sheila R. Bonito, Professor at the Faculty of Management and Development Studies, and on secondment as Dean of the UP Manila College of Nursing, has been conferred the title “UP Scientist II.” Dr. Bonito is an expert in statistics, research, epidemiology, and health education. She has a Postdoctoral Fellowship received on a Technology Scholarship Grant at the Vienna University of Technology (VUT), and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Doctoral Nursing from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Her Doctorate in Public Health (Epidemiology) degree is from the University of the Philippines in Manila. She was also awarded the Bernd Rode Award in 2016, which was established by the Austrian-South-East-Asian Academic University Network, an international network of universities from Europe and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Patricia B. Arinto, former UP Faculty Regent and former Dean of the UPOU Faculty of Education, was conferred the title “UP Scientist II.” Prof. Arinto holds a Doctoral degree in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Technology-Based Distributed Learning from the University of British Columbia (Canada). Both her master’s and bachelor’s degree are from UP. Her area of expertise include distance education, learning design, and teacher professional development in technology-supported learning, where she has published several book chapters and journal articles. Her research involvement and external work included being the Team Leader for the Technology-supported Teacher Professional Development in Early Literacy Instruction; Theme Adviser for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for the Digital Learning for Development (DL4D); Deputy Principal Investigator of Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project of International Development Research Centre (IDRC); Project Leader and Principal Investigator of an Australian Government-funded study on the use of tablet computers in public secondary schools in the Philippines.
Dr. Alexander G. Flor, the Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies and former UPOU Vice Chancellor for Research and Development, was conferred the “UP Scientist III” title. Dr. Flor has a PhD in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and a Post Doctorate Degree in Informatization Studies from the East West Center- Institute of Culture and Communication in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a well-cited scholar in the area of development communication, knowledge management, distance education, information and communication technology or ICT for Development, ICT for Education, and indigenous knowledge systems. Dr. Flor is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, East-West Center Association and the National Research Council of the Philippines.
The UP Scientific Productivity Award is an incentive system established in 2005 to support UP faculty and researchers in the development of science and technology and encourage and reward scientific productivity and recognition. The title “UP Scientist” is conferred with a monetary award. (ACLlamas)
