Profile of Eugenia M. Del Pino Ugenia Del Pino Does Not Con- to Ecuador

PROFILE Profile of Eugenia M. del Pino ugenia del Pino does not con- to Ecuador. She was not satisfied, how- sider herself a ‘‘real’’ biologist. ever. She wanted to learn more biology She cannot abide dissections or and advanced research techniques. She fieldwork. She chose her Ph.D. struggled with the administrators at Eresearch—her life’s work, as it turned LASPAU. ‘‘I wanted to complete a out—by a process of elimination. ‘‘I Ph.D., something that at the time was didn’t want to work with parasites,’’ she unheard of,’’ she says. ‘‘They said that recalls. ‘‘I didn’t want to work with bac- a master’s degree would suffice for the teria. I didn’t want to do anything in the level of scientific advancement in Ecua- medical profession.’’ Free-living proto- dor. And so I argued and I got every- zoans seemed safe, but her supervisor at thing that needed to be done so they Emory University ordered her to collect could allow me to complete a Ph.D.’’ samples from the banks of the Alta- Donald Williams, who had approved maha River. ‘‘I just imagined myself del Pino’s transfer to the master’s pro- having to wear boots, collecting those gram, was a graduate of Emory Univer- things and that was not for me!’’ sity (Atlanta, GA). He advised her to Fortunately for her and for the field apply to Emory because he believed she of developmental biology, another pro- would receive solid biology training fessor was studying frog embryos. there. Also, Emory’s biology department Harmless Xenopus laevis suited del Pi- featured a specialist in free-living proto- no’s taste in experimental animals. After zoa, on which del Pino had written her her Ph.D., she returned to her native Eugenia del Pino master’s thesis. Thus it was that, once Ecuador to apply her research skills to accepted to Emory, she approached her the study of exotic frogs, which are so target professor to ask him about oppor- Peace Corps volunteer Frances Ramirez tunities for studying the life cycle of cili- prolific in Ecuador that she did not have taught microbiology, instilling an ethic of to leave campus to find wild specimens. ates. It soon became apparent that the careful, consistent laboratory work. Both project he had in mind would involve del Pino says she fought to advance at encouraged gifted students to pursue ca- every step of her 35-year career, but her wading in riverside muck to collect spec- reers in science and took a special interest imens. However, fieldwork had always tenacity has paid off. She was named to in del Pino, persuading her to apply for the National Academy of Sciences in been anathema to del Pino. She balked. scholarships for graduate training abroad. Luckily, she met Professor Alan 2006 for the perspective her work has Acosta and Ramirez were delighted Humphries Jr., who was investigating how brought to developmental biology. when the Latin American Scholarship eggs form in X. laevis, the frog equivalent Program of American Universities Exceeding Expectations of Drosophila melanogaster. For her doc- (LASPAU) awarded del Pino a fellow- torate, del Pino joined Humphries’s The Pontifical Catholic University of Ec- ship that paid for her to study at a U.S. laboratory to study the process by which uador [Pontificia Universidad Cato´lica del university, on the condition that she Xenopus eggs are fertilized. She found Ecuador (PUCE), Quito, Ecuador] has return to Ecuador afterward to teach. that how susceptible an egg is to fertiliza- been the setting for most of del Pino’s After a year waiting for the fellowship tion depends on the salt concentration life. ‘‘As a student I was gifted; I could do paperwork to be processed, del Pino and pH of the surrounding medium. If many things,’’ del Pino recalls. ‘‘To choose found out that she had been accepted to salt concentration drops, the outer layers a career path was very difficult for me.’’ Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY). of jelly on the egg swell, change structure, She was interested in the German lan- Happy as she was to arrive at Vassar in and block sperm from entering. After she guage and continues to study German 1967, an unpleasant surprise awaited. defended her dissertation in May 1972, it even today. However, when del Pino Vassar considered del Pino’s four years was time to go home. entered PUCE in 1963, the science pro- at PUCE the equivalent of one year at an gram at the School of Education, American institution and had assigned her A Rocky Homecoming established with aid from the Kennedy sophomore status. del Pino could not be- ‘‘Once I accepted a fellowship requiring administration in the United States, was lieve it. ‘‘I went to the dean of studies. I that I return to Ecuador to teach,’’ ex- only one year old. The equipment was said, ‘I think you have a made an error.’’’ plains del Pino, ‘‘it was my moral obliga- brand new, and courses were taught by After careful thought, the dean decided tion to return and try to do my best.’’ imported American professors. Impelled to put del Pino on academic probation However, she did not get the homecoming by curiosity, del Pino enrolled. for a semester. A professor followed her she expected. She wrote to PUCE ahead The aim of the science program was to progress and decided that she was indeed of time, telling them that she was finishing train high school science teachers. Peace graduate student material. Because Vassar her doctorate, in the hope they would Corps volunteers and professors from is primarily an undergraduate college, have a job for her. On her arrival, the PUCE’s sister university, the University of there were only two other students in the head of the science institute informed her St. Louis in Missouri, taught the teachers- master’s program. However, del Pino real- that they could only offer her a position to-be. ‘‘The foreign professors were inspir- ized that the department’s small size was that paid by the hour, she recalls. The ing,’’ del Pino says, ‘‘but in some cases to her advantage: She could benefit from going rate was the equivalent of 25 cents their command of Spanish was somewhat much more attention and support from limited.’’ Two who did speak Spanish had the professors than if she had been at tremendous influence on the young del a larger university. This is a Proﬁle of a recently elected member of the National Pino. Candida Acosta, a Puerto Rican del Pino finished a master’s degree in Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s Inaugural affiliated with the University of St. Louis, biology in 1969. According to the terms Article on page 11882 in issue 29 of volume 104. was head of the biology department. And of her fellowship, she needed to return © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0709215104 PNAS ͉ October 30, 2007 ͉ vol. 104 ͉ no. 44 ͉ 17249–17251 Downloaded by guest on September 25, 2021 for making thin slices of embryos) and various staining agents. ‘‘I decided that I could enjoy myself, doing whatever I wanted to do in my free time,’’ she says. All she needed was a research subject. Fancy Frogs Fuel a Career ‘‘I decided that I needed to look for an interesting frog,’’ she says. She did not have to travel far. ‘‘I went to the gardens of the university and found two different frogs. And the most strange was the marsupial frog, which has a pouch and carries the babies inside. The pouch is in the back, like a backpack.’’ Out of the intense competition for reproductive sites in the South American rainforest had evolved over 60 species of these frogs, in which the females double as mobile nests. Their reproduction and development was under- stood only in barest outline. del Pino had found her subject. del Pino and students in her laboratory at PUCE in Quito (credit Micheline Pelletier, L’Oreal). As a natural extension of her graduate work, she examined how marsupial frog eggs are fertilized and how the em- an hour. Furthermore, PUCE would only thought what I was saying was so inter- bryos are maintained in the mother’s allow her to teach the laboratory section esting,’’ she says. ‘‘They didn’t miss a pouch. ‘‘My first idea,’’ she says, ‘‘was, of introductory biology because she had word.’’ At the end of the course, she maybe in the evening, she will go into no teaching experience in Ecuador. ‘‘That gave an exam to assess what the stu- the pool and then the eggs will be re- was pretty discouraging,’’ she says. dents had learned. ‘‘I realized that they freshed with fresh water. Well, take Reluctant to take such an ill-paid, bor- never had cell biology, they had no those eggs from the pouch of the ing job, del Pino sought out the director training whatsoever for what I was mother and place them in fresh water, of the PUCE biology department, Olga teaching. But they were fascinated, and and they die immediately.’’ She found Herrera MacBryde. Herrera was happy to Guayaquil actually offered me a job.’’ In that, unlike Xenopus embryos, marsupial see a talented scientist return to Ecuador. the meantime, however, the administra- frog embryos develop under saline con- ‘‘At that moment,’’ del Pino says, Herrera tors at PUCE had thought things over ditions typically found in the body. ‘‘received a phone call from Guayaquil, and decided to hire del Pino after all.

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