For this year, I am happy to acknowledge my former student who has an outstanding achievement in the field of biodiversity conservation.
Dr. Ma. Louella L. Dolar is recognized as the foremost authority on Philippine marine mammals.
Dolar took her B.S. (Biology) degree at Silliman University, and finished a master’s degree with a thesis on fish at the James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. She served as faculty member of the Biology Department at Silliman after earning her master’s degree.
Beginning in the 1980s, her research interest shifted to marine mammal ecology and conservation, the field in which she was awarded the Ph.D. by the University of California, San Diego, U.S.A.
Dr. Dolar’s decision to study marine mammals turned out to be the right one, for no one at that time was conducting research on Philippine marine mammals.
Since the 1990s, Dr. Dolar has been very active in pursuing marine mammal research in several Philippine marine waters and in the seas of Southeast Asia, together with Philippine colleagues and her husband, W.F. Perrin, who is also a noted marine mammalogist.
Dr. Dolar has published many papers on marine mammals. Her most recent work, co-authored with two Silliman graduates, M.N.R. Alava and E.R. Sabater, is a much-needed guide book, Red List Status of Marine Mammals in the Philippines, to be published soon by Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources-National Fisheries Research & Development Institute.
Despite her change of residence from Dumaguete to the U.S.A., Dr. Dolar has continued her research and teaching at Silliman. Every year, she comes back to teach and conduct research and thus, continues to influence graduate students.
Dr. Dolar is at present the primary investigator of a research project on the conservation of a population of the Irrawaddy Dolphin that she discovered in the marine and estuarine waters of the Bago City and Pulupandan municipality (Negros Island), of the towns of Dumangas, Zaraga, and Leganes (southeastern Iloilo Province), and of the town of Buenavista (northern Guimaras).
This study is being conducted in collaboration with the local governments of the respective towns, and is funded by a German grant to Silliman University.
Because of her pioneering research (marine mammal research in the Philippines begun at Silliman), and her commitment to the conservation of important wildlife, she certainly deserves recognition as the authority on Philippine marine mammals.
Moreover, Dr. Louella Dolar is a worthy candidate for the Outstanding Sillimanian Award, an award for Silliman graduates who have significantly contributed to the pursuit of truth in their fields of specialty.
