Dr. Wilfredo Barraquio, who died early this year of heart disease, will receive the Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award for his contributions to microbiology and their benefits on the environment, society and rice agriculture.

His award will be received by his wife, Dr. Virginia Barraquio, a professor at the UP Los Baños Dairy Training and Research Institute, on April 20 at the Traders Hotel.

Based on the awardee’s biodata obtained by the Manila Bulletin, Barraquio’s research on the environment focused on the utilization of microbes "in cleaning up the environment of pollutants."

Among Barraquio’s researches on the field includes the isolation of natural samples of microorganisms capable of degrading crude oil.

"Some of these organisms are still stored at the Museum of Natural History, UPLB, available for biotechnological exploitation as component of a bioremediation formulation," the paper said.

The same study also found out that native microbes have the capability to remove specific pollutants in case of an oil spill in a non-polluted site through site fertilization.

Using lahar (ash ejecta), Barraquio also studied nutrient deficient soils and the microbial degradation of aromatic compounds like phenol and synthetic dyes, particularly those used in the paper industries.

"Results of our lahar research have shown that good native microbes are associated tightly and loosely with the roots of wild legumes and talahib that pioneer nutrient-deficient lahar," said Barraquio and his research group.

In another research work, Barraquio’s group was able to isolate bacteria "which could degrade phenol and synthetic dyes under oxygen-limiting conditions and bacteria which are capable of transforming ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to less hazardous forms."

In rice agriculture, his study on the microbial ecology and activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with the rhizosphere of paddy rice "paved the way for more intense research in rice heterotrophic nitrogen fixation worldwide."

Prior to the NAST — Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award, Barraquio had been granted a graduate scholarship by the National Science Development Board, currently the Department of Science and Technology, in 1973 to 1975; a postgraduate fellowship in Japan by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - International Cell Research Organization; McGill University Dalbir Bindra Graduate Fellowship in McGill University, Quebec, Canada; and as an exchange scientist at the University of Tokyo’s Department of Biotechnology in 1992; Osaka University’s Dept. of Biotechnology in 1993; and Tohoku University’s Institute of Genetic Ecology in 2000, all by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Barraquio also served as president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology from 2004 to 2005.

The NAST - Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award, which usually coincides with the Earth Day celebration, is given in recognition of outstanding specific and technological works that contribute to environmental protection and conservation.