Celebrate All Scientists: Aletta Concepcion Yñiguez
Saturday, June 8 is World Oceans Day, and on this day, LSC celebrates marine biologist Aletta Concepcion Yñiguez.
Aletta Concepcion Yñiguez is an assistant professor at the Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines Diliman. Her work has made a significant impact on the sardine industry in the Philippines through her research on a harmful environmental issue that's impacting marine life.
Yñiguez’s main focus has been on harmful algal blooms known as red tide. Red tide happens when phytoplankton build up in large bodies of water. Besides impacting marine life, these blooms are dangerous to human health.
Yñiguez is an expert in biological oceanography, which mainly focuses on microorganisms in the ocean. She graduated from the Division in Marine Biology, and Fisheries, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and the University of Miami, Florida where she received her PhD on a Fulbright Scholarship and a Maytag Fellowship.
Yñiguez is the project lead of COASTS (Community Alliance for the Sustainability of our Threatened Seats), where the goal is to improve food and safety and overall quality of water. The group is developing an early warning system that will help lessen the impact of sudden red tide occurrences. She works closely with the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines to develop low-cost sensors that would help get this data in real time.
In 2017, she won the National Academy of Science and Technology Outstanding Young Scientist Award largely due to her work on modeling the dynamics of the ocean ecosystem to build early warning systems.
Despite being busy with her influential work, Aletta Concepcion Yñiguez makes time for summer camps and marine science events for youth because of her strong belief that educating kids early on will help grow more advocates for the ocean!
(This post was written by Olivia Woodruff, an Early Childhood STEM Educator at LSC. She studied Environmental Policy, institutions, and Behavior in college. Her favorite exhibit at LSC is Wild About Animals.)
