Filipino Chemist - Dr. Bienvenido O. Juliano

The study of rice grain quality has been the primary focus of the work that Dr. Bienvenido O. Juliano has worked on throughout his career. That includes extensive research into the properties of protein, starch, and other particles that make up a grain of rice. Through Dr. Juliano's efforts, scientists are able to measure potential grain quality as a genetic quality, and thus save time and effort in rice production. That has changed breeding strategies adopted on an international level, and has made rice not only more economically viable for breeders and farmers, but also richer in nutrients. By stripping each variety of rice grain down to its essential components, he has been able to pinpoint what the value is of each variety and combine them to create a more fully enriched and valuable end source of food for human consumption.

Dr. Bienvenido O. Juliano graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor's degree in 1955, and went on to receive his Master's and PhD degree from the University of Ohio in the United States in Organic Chemistry, to which he has since been completely dedicated in his career. Put in charge of grain quality research at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines after his studies were completed, Dr. Juliano was mainly responsible for pinpointing the specific differences in between varieties of rice grains. He retired from the IRRI in 1993, and since then has been working as a senior consultant at the Philippine Rice Research Institute.

During this professional period of working in the Rice Institutes, Dr. Bienvenido O. Juliano has written over 370 scientific papers dedicated to rice chemistry. That includes several chapters of the American Association of Cereal Chemists paper, "Rice in Human Nutrition," and reports on world rice qualities. Dr. Juliano has also served as an academic advisor to many visiting research assistants, post doctoral fellows, and visiting scientists that have arrived at his laboratory from around the world.

As a result of his many contributions to the field of rice grain quality, Dr. Bienvenido O. Juliano has received a number of professional awards and qualifications. These include the Ten Outstanding Young Men Award in Science in 1964, as well as the Japanese Society of Starch Science Medal of Merit in 1982. Dr. Juliano has also been awarded the National Research Council of the Philippines National Researcher Award in Physical Sciences in 1993, and the ASEAN Outstanding Scientist and Technologists Award in 1998. Finally, in 2000 he was appointed to the highest rank of National Scientist in the Philippines.