The Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP MSI) is one of the two awardees of the Calouste Gulbenkian International Prize 2008.
The MSI was recognized “its thoughts or actions that have made a decisive contribution to and have significant impact on understanding, defending or fostering the universal values of the human condition, with particular reference to respect for biodiversity and defence of the environment in man’s relationship with nature.”
The prize is given by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a Portuguese private institution of public utility created by a clause in the will of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, an Armenian businessman and philantrophist. The foundation’s statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education and science.
MSI shares the prize worth €100,000 with the Global Footprint Network of the United States.
Since its founding as the Marine Science Center in 1974, MSI has worked to translate its mandate into actions and products that bring it closer to the communities it serves, both locally and internationally. Examples of exemplary achievements of the MSI directly in line with biodiversity and environmental protection for which the award was based are in the following: population genetics and species biogeography; assessment and restoration of depleted and threatened marine ecosystems and populations; community-based coastal resources management, integrated coastal management and environmental governance; and biodiversity and drug development.
On December 15, 1994, Presidential Proclamation No. 518 designated the MSI as the National Center of Excellence in the Marine Sciences thus recognizing its adherence to excellence in both research and teaching at the tertiary level. Recently, the Institute was chosen as one of the four Centers of Excellence in the world within the Global Environment Facility/World Bank Program on Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capability Building for Management. (The Marine Science Institute)