Retired professor from the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) at Unicamp Delia Rodriguez Amaya received, this Wednesday (2), one of the most important awards in International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST). Professor Emeritus at Unicamp and Researcher Emeritus at CNPq, Filipina Delia Rodriguez Amaya will receive the award for her lifetime of work dedicated to science.
This is the first time that a woman has received this award, which will take place during the 21st World Congress of Food Science and Technology, held between October 31st and November 3rd, in Singapore. To date, only male scientists from so-called developed countries have received recognition, with the exception of one Indian scientist. In addition to Delia Amaya, researcher Ruth Oniang'o, from Kenya, will also be awarded by the International Union.
The rector of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, said that the award does justice to professor Delia's story. "It is a source of immense pride for the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) and for our University to grant this honor to the professor. It is an award given for all of her academic and research achievements in food science. Delia is, without a doubt, one of the most renowned researchers in Brazil in this area and enjoys a lot of international prestige", said the dean
Paradigm break
The emeritus professor guarantees that she was surprised by the announcement of the award. “I honestly wasn’t expecting it,” she said. “But, of course, I’m very happy, because it’s a great recognition,” she added. For the scientist, the award breaks paradigms. “In addition to being – Ruth and I – the first women to receive the award, we are also the first scientists from third world countries, or what are today called 'developing countries'. This is very significant,” she recalled.
According to the professor, this award also serves as an encouragement to women who dream of becoming scientists. “When I started, they didn’t really believe in my resume. I had gone to the University of California, but even so, they didn’t really believe in me,” she reported. “They asked me: if you studied in the United States, what are you doing here (in Brazil)? Since I came from the third world, I want to work for the people of the third world, I told them,” she said.
Despite the disbelief of her peers, Delia Rodriguez Amaya became a recognized scientist in the world. Between 2012 and 2014, she was president of International Academy of Food Science and Technology; is among the 100 most influential Filipinos in the world and among the 100 most influential scientists in the world; received congratulations from the Unicamp University Council on four occasions; She is the author of more than 250 scientific publications, most of them international, and several of her publications were on the lists of the ten most cited and most read articles in international journals.
His four books in international circulation are widely cited in international journals (cited 2.285, 1.136, 420 and 135 times). He has received several awards, including the 2010 East-West Center Distinguished Alumni Award and the “Zeferino Vaz” recognition award. She is a scientific advisor to the International Foundation for Science, a consultant to the FAO-UN, and a member of the editorial board of the journals Trends in Food Science and Technology, Plant Foods for Human Nutrition and Archivos Latinoamericano de Nutrición. She has already supervised 24 master's students, 24 doctoral students and 15 scientific initiation students, in addition to supervising five postdoctoral researchers in Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The World Congress – which takes place in Singapore – takes place this year for the first time since 2019. It was suspended due to the pandemic. “I thought about going there, but I was afraid, still because of the pandemic, but also because of the distance – between 27 hours and 29 hours of travel”, argued the teacher.
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Delia Rodriguez-Amaya and Renato Giuseppe Giovanni Terzi receive emeritus titles
