Dr. Wilfredo Roehl Y. Licuanan

Dr. Wilfredo (“Al”) Licuanan is a Distinguished Full Professor and a University Fellow at De La Salle University (DLSU). He is also a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.  He is a recipient of the 2016 Commission on Higher Education Republica Award, the 2018 Environmental Science Award of the National Academy of Science and Technology, the 2013, 2017, and 2020 St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle Pillar of Excellence Award of DLSU, the 2022 Force of Nature Award of World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines, and the 2021 and 2024 Outstanding Book Award of the National Academy of Science and Technology.  His grade school to master’s degrees came from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. His Ph.D. in Biology is from the University of Southern California.

Al Licuanan is with the Department of Biology and is the founder of the DLSU Br. Alfred Shields Ocean Research (SHORE) Center.  He has led research teams to many previously unstudied reefs around the country, including the Kalayaan Islands (where he discovered a new coral species, Leptoseris kalayaanensis) and the Pacific Ocean coasts from Luzon to Mindanao.  He led a nationwide reassessment of the status of reefs around the Philippines. His current focus is setting up a national reef monitoring system and a threatened coral species mapping effort.