Dr. Mercedes Concepcion, former Dean of the UP Population Institute, was declared National Scientist for her outstanding contributions in the field of demography through Proclamation No. 1980 issued by Malacañang on 14 January 2010. This award is the highest honor which the Philippine Government can bestow on a Filipino scientist for outstanding contributions to science and technology.  

Dr. Concepcion’s outstanding accomplishments covered the study of population composition and trends and their implications for social and economic development, the growth of urbanization, the situation of the elderly and of employment that resulted in the formulation of population policies here and abroad.  

Dr. Concepcion, the country’s first demographer, has racked up many other “firsts” in her distinguished career. She was the first Filipino staff member of the United Nations Statistical Training Centre set up at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1955, the first and only Dean of the UP Population Institute (UPPI) from 1964 to 1985, the first and sole Philippine Representative to the United Nations Population Commission in 1967, the first Woman to chair this UN Population Commission from 1969 to 1977, and the first Asian woman to be elected President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population in 1981-1985.

Dr. Concepcion, together with the late Acting UP President Enrique T. Virata and Professor Philip M. Hauser of the University of Chicago, worked for the establishment of the UP Population Institute in 1964 with funding assistance from the Ford Foundation. UPPI served as the secretariat of the ad hoc Population Commission that was instrumental in the enactment of the Population Act of 1971 that provided for a national population policy and a family planning program. Through the years, UPPI has earned a reputation as a prime research and training center on population-related fields.

In 1986, Dr. Concepcion chaired the Committee to Review the Philippine Statistical System which led to the reorganization of the country’s statistical offices and to the establishment of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). Twenty years later, she was again appointed to the Committee to Review the Philippine Statistical System.

Her research efforts have gained recognition both locally and internationally. Under her leadership, UPPI collaborated with its counterpart institutions in Southeast Asia to undertake joint research projects on population and family planning. She headed the Organization of Demographic Associates (ODA) composed of leading population institutes in Asia. The ODA planned and implemented research studies on migration, urbanization, the elderly and population and development issues in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The research results were used by the region’s policy makers and programme managers as guides to effective population and programme management. She was also tapped by the World Health Organization in the 1980s to chair the Steering Committee on the Social and Psychological Determinants of Fertility Regulation, a committee that reviewed research and action programme proposals for funding.

Dr. Concepcion has authored innumerable publications, served scores of consultancies with international and local agencies, and reaped countless awards and honors. She has been an Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) since 1992. In May 2009, the NAST membership endorsed Dr. Concepcion to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the Order of National Scientist.

At present, Dr. Concepcion is Board Member of the Commission on Population, Chair of the NSCB Technical Committee on Population and Housing Statistics, Vice-President of the Executive Council of NAST, and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

Source: http://www.nast.ph