By Yasmin S. Gatal-HashimotoCzarina A. Saloma-Akpedonu, Ph.D. has been named 2007 Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) in the field of Sociology by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) during awarding ceremonies held recently at the Manila Hotel.
According to NAST, Saloma-Akpedonu received the award for her work which “can be considered as a marriage between technology and social science. Its impact lies on the way one views technology and its relation to culture and people’s identity.â€
The OYS Awards are given to young Filipino scientists who have made significant contributions to science and technology. The awards are traditionally conferred to 10 outstanding individuals working in the following fields: agriculture sciences; biological sciences; chemical, mathematical and physical sciences; engineering sciences and technology; health sciences; and, social sciences.
In the latter years however, the magical number has not been reached which explains why the numerical ceiling has since been dropped.
To be eligible, one must not be more than 40 years old at the time of the awarding and must have accumulated a sizable body of published works, scientific researches and other equally significant publications.
Saloma-Akpedonu, who hails from Baclayon, Bohol, is the youngest daughter of the late Ciriaco Saloma, former manager of the Bohol Power Grid of the National Power Corporation, and Celerina Aya-ay, a public school teacher.
She is also the youner sister of Caesar Saloma, now Dean of the College of Science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who himself won the award in 1992 in the field of Applied Physics.
She is the second sociologist to receive the award, following in the footsteps of her former teacher at the University of the Philippines-Diliman Ma. Cynthia Rose Banzon-Bautista who won the award in 1988. She said both her brother and her teacher served as her inspiration.
Saloma-Akpedonu earned her academic degrees from Bielefeld Universitaet (Dr. rer. Soc) in Germany, Peking University (MA) in China and University of the Philippines-Diliman (BA). She currently serves as Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Ateneo de Manila University. Saloma-Akpedonu is also President of the Philippine Sociological Society and Secretary of the Board of the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee on the Sociology of Science and Technology.
She is currently the Gender and ICT Specialist for eHomemakers (Malaysia) and International Development Research Council’s research project on Homeworkers and ICTs in Southeast Asia. She is also Editor of the Loyola Schools Review 2006 and Issue Co-Editor of the Philippine Sociological Review.
Saloma-Akpedonu is the author of “Possible Worlds in Impossible Spaces: Knowledge, Globality, Gender and Information Technology in the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006), an ethnographic study on the “doing†of IT in the Philippines.
She is currently doing a study on heritage houses in danger of being overtaken by tourism developments in the province of Bohol, together with husband Erik Akpedonu, an architect from Germany.
In acknowledging the accolade she received from her former classmates at the Holy Spirit School-Tagbilaran City, she wrote, “I am sure the awarding ceremony itself will simultaneously be a humbling and inspiring experience – this is what standing before people who have done so much more than whatever I did would do.†(published by the Bohol Chronicle)
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