Dolores Ramirez

Dolores Altoveros Ramirez (born September 20, 1931) is a Filipino geneticist. She specializes in plant breeding and plant cytogenetics. She was named a National Scientist of the Philippines in 1998.

Early life and education Dolores A. Ramirez was born on September 20, 1931, in Calamba, Laguna, to Leonor Altoveros and Augusto U. Ramirez. She was the oldest of eight children and her father died when she was young. She graduated from Laguna Institute (now Laguna College of Business and Arts) in 1952 with a First Honorable Mention award.

She attended the University of the Philippines Los Baños, earning a bachelor of science in agriculture, magna cum laude, in 1956. Her thesis, under Dioscoro L. Umali, concerned the nature of lodging in rice. She received a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship and attended the University of Minnesota in the United States. She studied under cytogeneticist Charles Burnham and earned her MSc in cytogenetics in 1958. She continued on to Purdue University, studying under geneticist Mark L. Tomes. She received her PhD in biochemical genetics in 1963, minoring in plant pathology and plant physiology. She was hired by the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines Los Baños as an assistant professor in 1964. She attained the position of associate professor in 1969 and full professor in 1974. She was named a full University Professor in 1995.

In August 2023, she was featured on the cover of Vogue Philippines.

Awards and honors National Scientist of the Philippines (1998) A hybrid of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis was named for her in 2000, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Dolores A. Ramirez'.

Selected publications