Jose R. Velasco

In 1998, Velasco was named a National Scientist of the Philippines by President Fidel Ramos. His official citation acknowledged, among others, his research in photoperiodism and on the physiology of the coconut plant.

In 1967, Velasco was appointed Commissioner of the National Institute of Science and Technology, a position he held for 10 years. Even though his duties were administrative in nature, he continued to work on various research projects using the NIST laboratories.

Velasco was born in Imus, Cavite. After nearly flunking out of a vocational high school, he transferred to an agricultural high school (now the Central Luzon State University Science High School), where he graduated salutatorian. Velasco enrolled in what was then the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (now the University of the Philippines Los Baños) in Laguna province. He graduated at the top of his class in 1940 with a degree in Agriculture, major in Agricultural Chemistry. Upon graduation, Velasco joined the faculty of the University of the Philippines and remained there for the duration of World War II, during which he endured a brief period of incarceration by the Japanese army. After the war, Velasco pursued graduate studies in the United States and obtained a Ph.D in plant physiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1949. He re-joined the faculty of the University of the Philippines and remained there until 1967.

Jose R. Velasco (February 4, 1916 – January 24, 2007) was a Filipino plant physiologist and agricultural chemist noted for his research on soil and plant nutrition and on coconut diseases. In 1998, he was recognized as a National Scientist of the Philippines.