Eugenia Del Pino

Eugenia Maria 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).

Del Pino was born, and grew up in Quito, Ecuador. She received a Licentiate Degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador,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. She is professor of Biology since 1972–present. She served as Head of Biological Sciences, from 1973-1975.

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 of Washington, 1990.

At her return to Ecuador after her doctoral studies, Del Pino chose a local frog for study, the Andean marsupial frog, Gastrotheca riobambae, that then occurred in the gardens of the university in Quito. She studied the reproductive and developmental adaptations of this frog in comparison with other tropical frogs, and the frog Xenopus laevis, a frog widely used for developmental studies.

The marsupial frog has a pouch and carries the babies inside. Out of the intense competition for reproductive sites in the South American rainforest had evolved over 60 species of these frogs, in which the females double as mobile nests. Their reproduction and development was understood only in barest outline. As an extension of her graduate work, she examined how marsupial frog eggs are fertilized and how embryos are maintained in the mother’s pouch. Her original hypothesis was that the mother must search for fresh water at night to refresh her eggs. What she found was that the embryos actually died in fresh water. Marsupial frog embryos develop under saline conditions typically found in the body. Traditional frogs and marsupial frogs also differ in how their embryos excrete waste. Free-swimming tadpoles excrete ammonia, which would be toxic if accumulated in close quarters. Eugenia del Pino discovered that marsupial frog embryos excrete urea instead of ammonia. This finding allowed her to devise a urea-based medium for the in vitro culture of marsupial frog embryos. Unfortunately, she has never been able to fertilize the eggs artificially. Despite this, her comparative studies added greatly to our understanding of the relationship between evolution and embryonic development.

In addition to her research, Del Pino is a professor of Developmental Biology at Pontifical Catholic University in Ecuador. She also became interested in education for conservation of the Galapagos Archipelago. She helped the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands in the establishment of a program of scholarships for Ecuadorian students in the Galapagos Islands. She served as Vice President of the Charles Darwin Foundation for several years in the 1990s. This work as well as her position as the only Ecuadorian citizen to have achieved international recognition in science, have made her a figure of national importance in Ecuador.

• Diploma for the Education and Conservation Efforts in the Galapagos Islands, The World Wildlife Fund. Gland, Switzerland, 1986.
• Medal given by the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands, 1999
• Founding Member Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Biología.
• Honorary foreign Member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 1996.
• Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL) 1987.
• Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) 1989.
• L’OREAL-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Latin America, 2000.
• Sheth Distinguished International Emory Alumni Award, 2003.
• “Pluma de la Dignidad” Award given by the National Association of Journalists of Ecuador, 2003.
• TWAS Medal Lecture, The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 2005.
• Eugenio Espejo Medal on the Sciences given by the Council and the Mayor of Quito, 2005.
• Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006.
• Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006.
• National Eugenio Espejo Prize (Premio Nacional Eugenio Espejo ) awarded by the Government of Ecuador, Quito, 2012.
• Eugenio Espejo Medal on the Sciences given by the Chamber of Commerce of Quito 2012 (Cámara de Comercio de Quito ).

• DNA researcher Okazaki wins int'l award for female scientists., the Free Library, 5 April 2015
• Eugenia Maria del Pino Veintimilla. 2003 Sheth Distinguished International Alumnae Award. Emory University International. Available at http://www.international.emory.edu/About/International%20Awards/eugenia.html
• "Premio Nacional Eugenio Espejo" (in Spanish). p. es:Premio Eugenio Espejo. 
• "Consejo Nacional de Cultura" (in Spanish). p. http://www.cncultura.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&Itemid=153. 
• "Camara de Comercio de Quito" (in Spanish). p. http://www.ccq.org.ec/.