4 Filipinos in Britannica ‘Shapers of the Future’

THE FUTURE is unwritten. It is also right around the corner, with scores of young people around the world shaping it, improving it, and making it more equitable.

Each year, Britannica collates a list of young people under the age of 40 (as of January 2022), who have already left their mark on the present, and surely have much more invention, innovation, creation, and interpretation ahead of them. 

These young people work in many fields and endeavors, embracing every corner and intersection of health and medicine, science and technology, business and entrepreneurship, social activism and politics, and numerous other areas.

They are people of ideas, framing the intellectual questions and concerns that will guide future thought. They are scholars, builders, designers, architects, artists, teachers, writers, musicians, social and political leaders, and much more. 

Unlike other lists or awards, these ‘Shapers’ are not necessarily well-known. The wider community outside of their area of expertise may never have heard of them, but they are certainly spurring incredible changes that will shape our futures. 

This year, Britannica’s list of young mavericks includes four ‘Shapers’ from the Philippines. 

1. Shaper is Jessica de Torres. She studied environmental and sanitary engineering at Batangas State University, taking a B.S. degree there in 2009. Some of her first engineering projects dealt with mine rehabilitation. 

She then specialized in the design of sanitary systems, including calculating water demand and other hydraulic issues that can be challenging in environments where water is not always readily available. She found out as much when she went to work for a consultancy in Dubai, designing large-scale plumbing projects throughout the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These projects include commercial blocks, hotels, housing developments, and high-rise buildings. 

For her work in plumbing engineering, De Torres was honored at the 2020 Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Middle East Awards in Dubai, which recognize firms and individuals who have made distinctive contributions to sustainable construction in the region. Of a field where women are still relatively rare, she says: “Gender dominance in the industry can serve as an inspiration for us women to work hard. As a woman, I know I can impart my knowledge and make a huge difference.”

2. Maria Isabel Layson, 18. After attending an elementary school for gifted children and the Singapore American School, Layson returned to her native Iloilo City and enrolled in an advanced science curriculum at the National High School there. While studying an abundant berry locally called aratiles or sarisa in a Food and Nutrition Research Institute laboratory in Manila, Layson discovered that the fruit contains antioxidant compounds that combat diabetes. 

In 2019, when she was 16, she presented her findings at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, as one of a dozen Filipino delegates. That year, she won Best Individual Research in Life Science at the National Science and Technology Fair, hosted by the Department of Education. 

Layson is now a student at the University of the Philippines-Visayas in Iloilo City, where she also operates a bakery that makes keto-friendly pastries. 

3. Ragene Andrea Palma took a degree in tourism at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City in 2011, intending to work in that sector. Instead, she became interested in 

how Manila and other cities in southeastern Asia were growing in response to population pressures and environmental change, and in 2020 she finished a degree, thanks to an exchange scholarship, in international planning and sustainable development at the University of Westminster in England. 

She worked as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development in the wake of the devastating Typhoon Yolanda, in November 2013, and as a planner for disaster-relief organizations. An urbanist based in Manila, she travels widely in order to bring home useful lessons, visiting Singapore, for instance, to study that island nation’s widespread system of green spaces and how such a system could be introduced to her native city.

Her blog, Little Miss Urbanite, has found many followers who read Palma’s thoroughly researched thoughts on COVID–19, social inequality, and other problems involved in urban planning. 

4. Rodney Perez, 32, studied food science at Visayas State University, on the island of Leyte, and then won a scholarship to Kyushu University in Japan, where he earned an M.S. in bioscience and biotechnology and a Ph.D. in microbial technology. His specialty as a researcher at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños is the study of bacteriocins, naturally occurring toxins that can kill related strains of bacteria implicated in food poisoning and spoilage.

Perez is now working on technologies to introduce these bacteriocins as part of food packaging processes—for instance, replacing artificial and potentially harmful steroids in dairy products with helpful bacteria from lactic acid that combat mastitis in cattle. 

He has received several honors for his work, including the Young Asian Biotechnologist award from Japan’s Society for Biotechnology. He is the first Filipino to have earned that vaunted international prize. Perez has expressed his intent to bring microorganisms to bear on other health-related problems in his country. “With microbial technologies we are able to make these tiny microorganisms work for us,” he says. 

The inclusion of people from the Philippines in the Shapers of the Future list comes at the same time as Encyclopaedia Britannica donated 100 copies of its new one-volume children’s encyclopedia to the National Library of the Philippines. 

The books are to be made available through public libraries and bookmobile operations that serve remote areas of the country. The Britannica All New Kids Encyclopedia, edited by world history author Christopher Lloyd, is a richly illustrated 424-page compendium of knowledge to satisfy curious minds, packed full of reliable facts from the experts at Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

Unlike old encyclopedias that were structured from A–Z, this one has a narrative arc, telling the story of the world from the beginning of time to the present day and even glimpsing into the future. 

In a statement, the National Library of the Philippines said, “The Britannica All-New Kids Encyclopedia will pique Filipino children’s interest and instill a love of reading at a young age. This beautiful 1-volume encyclopedia will encourage our children to become keen readers and consumers of information.” 

“Britannica is thrilled to support the Philippines National Library to promote the reading habits of our younger learners and establish the foundation for more Filipino ‘Shapers of the Future’,” said Theodore Pappas, executive editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Our children’s encyclopedia is a wonderful book for early learners - for sparking their curiosity about the wonders of the world, both big and small-and for readers in areas without easy access to the Internet or to new educational resources.” (Mindanao Examiner)