Balitaan Newsletter 55, Fall 2012 www.rpcvphilippines.org
[email protected] P.O. Box 100114, Arlington, VA 22210 PCAFPD helps Rico Ancog accept a was doing science with North American scientific professional opportunity practices. He met people with whom he will be able From interview with Sarah McMeans to collaborate in the future. In October, Rico Ancog, a 2004 graduate of Central Rico feels that all of his opportunities flow from his Mindanao University (CMU) with a degree in higher education, which was made possible by the environmental science, and now an Assistant two PCAFPD scholarships. His initial interest in Professor in the School of Environmental Science science was sparked by the Youth Ecology Club and Management at the started by PCV Marin Aldrich at his high school in University of the Philippines Los Bilar, Bohol in 1997-98. She encouraged him to apply Baños (UPLB), presented a paper for the initial PCAFPD scholarship and wrote a at the Student Conference on recommendation for him. Conservation Science at the Rico loves the teaching and research that he is now American Museum of Natural doing and enjoys mentoring graduate students for History in NYC. Rico’s paper, Plant their MS degrees. He plans to continue teaching for Diversity and Vulnerability Analysis of Philippine 3 to 5 years before undertaking more advanced Indigenous Upland Ecosystems, was one of 25 papers studies and looks forward to a lifetime of research selected for an oral presentation. The conference and teaching. brought together several hundred graduate After the conference, he took the bus to students, postdoctoral fellows and early career Washington, DC, where he visited the Smithsonian professionals from many countries to share their Environmental Research Center, the Sackler Gallery conservation research, including the impact of of Asian Art, JFK’s gravesite at Arlington Cemetery climate change on the world’s ecosystems.