Eugenia del Pino

Ecuador was one of the few countries in Latin America that did not have an Academy of Sciences. For this reason, Eugenia invited several colleagues to discuss the possibility of establishing the National Academy of Sciences of Ecuador (a.k.a. ACE because of its Spanish acronym). She and her colleagues drafted the statutes and obtained the legal recognition from the Government of Ecuador. In 2013, the Secretariat of Science and Technology of Ecuador (SENESCYT) recognized the ACE. The six colleagues became the Founding Members of ACE. She served as Vice President of ACE from 2013 to 2016. The ACE membership grew in the following years, and has more than 50 Fellows. ACE provides recognition to its fellows, allows communication between Ecuadorian scientists, and seeks exchanges with institutions at home and abroad.

Her work brought her election to the Latin American Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, and in 2006 she became the first member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA from Ecuador. She received the L’Oreal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science for Latin America. Eugenia's life shows us how identifying an interesting biological problem and unraveling its mechanism can bring science to any country that allows for creativity.

For about 25 years del Pino contributed to education for conservation of the Galápagos Archipelago. She helped the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galápagos Islands in the establishment of a program of scholarships for Ecuadorian students in the Galápagos Islands. She served as Vice President of the Charles Darwin Foundation for several years in the 1990s. Later, due to time limitations she withdrew from the Galápagos conservation activities.

With a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation she did research at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, 1984–1985. She was Fulbright Fellow at the laboratory of Prof. Joseph Gall, Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Embryology in Baltimore, MD, USA, 1990.

She served as Head of Biological Sciences, from 1973–1975.

She was professor of Biology from 1972 to 2013. She is a professor emerita at PUCE since 2013 and engages in the theme of her scientific career, the analysis of frog early development.

Hers is a story of relentless determination and embracing every opportunity that was offered to her by a number of institutions. She was trained to become a High School Teacher at PUCE, at the time when President John F. Kennedy started the Alliance for Progress Program with Latin America. Some equipment and a few professors were sent to Ecuador to help in the training of high school science teachers. One of her professors, Dr. Cándida Acosta, encouraged her to apply for a scholarship to do graduate studies in the United States of America. She received a scholarship from the Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities (LASPAU) and an international fellowship from the American Association of University Women for her graduate studies in the US. Eugenia obtained a Master of Science from Vassar College and went on to Emory University in Atlanta to obtain a Ph.D with a great mentor, Asa Alan Humphries, Jr. Her dissertation dealt with the role of the egg-jelly on the fertilization of Xenopus laevis. Upon returning to Ecuador in 1972 she became professor of Biology at PUCE, her original University in Quito, and developed her scientific career in Ecuador.

Del Pino was born and grew up in Quito, Ecuador. She received a licentiate degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE),Quito 1967. She then studied in the United States of America and holds a M.Sc. Vassar College, 1969, and a Ph.D. Emory University, 1972. Upon completion of the doctorate she returned to Ecuador and joined the faculty the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito.

Eugenia María del Pino Veintimilla (born 1945, Quito, Ecuador) is a developmental biologist at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador) in Quito. She was the first Ecuadorian citizen to be elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (2006). She was awarded the 2019 Prize of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology for her strong contributions to research in Ecuador, and in general to promoting Developmental Biology in Latin America.