Isidro A. T. Savillo

Isidro A. T. Savillo
Born	1959 (age 64–65)
Fields	Scientist with interdisciplinary interest, writer
Institutions	Advanced trainings/researches and/or post graduate academic requirements were undertaken at the California State University, Dominguez Hills, US; University of Southern California School of Medicine and the LAC+USC Medical Center, California, US; Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Free University of Berlin, Germany; and the University of California, Los Angeles, California, US.
Alma mater	University of the Philippines Diliman University of the Philippines Visayas
Known for	challenging various well known biological theories, principles or beliefs and introducing novel scientific knowledge; savi pouch
Influences	Elliot Meyerowitz of Caltech
Notes
Granted a Doctoris Honoris Causa in Biological Science

Isidro Antonio Torte Savillo is a Philippine scientist at the Iloilo State College of Fisheries and a writer, specializing primarily in the study of lichens, fungi, and slime mould. One of his research studies has focused on the discovery of the impermanence of sexual phenotypes in both animals and plants. His finding on the use of Pyxine cocoes (Swartz) Nyl., a lichen as a bioindicator/biomonitor for atmospheric pollution has been practiced in the Philippines, Thailand, and India, where this is utilized for active biomonitoring (including transplant technique). He was also the senior author of a paper that introduced the proposed "Domesticity scale for wild birds".

Family background

He is the son of Dr. Isidro S. Savillo, a physician and a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Arcadia Torte Savillo, a pharmacist, both deceased. He has four siblings, namely, Julio, Ana Isabel S. Guevarra and Arcadia (M.D., RN), all living in the U.S.A. and Marchette S. Noble, a physician. He belongs to the Savillo clan.

Scientist/researcher

He is primarily a microbiologist and indulges in the study of lichens, microscopic fungi, and eumycetozoans. He is also an ichthyologist, theoretical biologist, molecular and cellular biologist, and wetland scientist. Currently, he is invited to join the regular round table discussion group of the NCEAS of the University of California Santa Barbara. He is also a regular invitee to participate in various AtlanticLIVE events hosted by the Atlantic Media.

One of his research studies has focused on the discovery of the impermanence of sexual phenotypes in both animals and plants. He has argued against specific guidelines to determine one's gender; he was quoted in 2010 as saying: "It is you who judges who you are. In this way, the judgment is accurate." The epigenetics article which includes topics about the "misspelled DNA" and that "only a small fraction [of the DNA] follows the Mendelian Inheritance" supports his 2002 publication on "The overpowering influence of the environment to gene expression", suggesting that environmental factors are responsible for this "revolutionary" stand. He also wrote an article entitled "Drawing the line between theoretical and basic biology" to emphasize their scientific delineation.

He also created a new terminology known as Foliimortuumous myxomycetes which means myxomycetes growing on dead leaves. He has argued that myxomycetes, like lichens, will have its own taxonomic world because the distinct individual characteristics (e.g. enzymatic functions) separating fungi from protists could both be found in myxomycetes. Having observed loopholes in DNA barcoding, he suggests that molecular taxonomy should not only focus on conserved genes for evolutionary lineages but include a package of genes representing the common phenotype (e.g. morphology) of at least 99.99% of the species to avoid production and weird placement of taxonomic orphans.

Organizations and research participation

He is engaged in the establishment of international societies/chapters in the areas of molecular and cell biology and biotechnology, personalized medicine, wetlands, taxonomy and recently, due to urgent need, resilience and adaptation. In particular, he helped organize the Asian and South American chapters of the Society of Wetland Scientists.

He is also the president of the International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Researches and a board member of the International Society for Collaborating Scientists in Personalized Medicine (ISCSPM). After receiving the official votes from ISMCBBPR (International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Researches) voters, Prof. Savillo as president announced the voters' choice for the Molecule of the Year competition. He participated in research at the California State University Retinal Cell biology laboratory, the molecular pathology laboratories, University of Southern California School of Medicine and the LAC+USC Medical Center. He was a DAAD research scholar at the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum.

Conferences, board meetings and keynote speeches

He has attended international conferences on wetlands, in conjunction with board meetings as president of the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Asia Chapter, in the U.S.A., Australia, Taiwan, and Czech Republic. He was a keynote speaker during the first SWS Asia chapter's Asian Wetland Convention and Workshop, where his speeches were cited in the bibliographic section of theses from Taiwan.

Editorial positions and scientific publications

He is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Ecology and Conservation, Journal of Wetlands Biodiversity, and the Journal of Wetlands Ecology. He was formerly an associate editor of Wetlands (2010-2013). He was also on the editorial board of a book entitled Biorights: The Conservation Paradigm for Poverty Alleviation. He is also a reviewer and a member of editorial boards of African Journal of Microbiology Research, International Journal of Marine Ecology, and various scientific proceedings. He was cited in the references of two research studies as a proceedings' editor in the Publication list, Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University. He has also written theoretical biology papers.

Other interests and awards

He espouses the environment and he is a member of the wildlife management committee in the region. He has concerns for climate change where he thinks that there is a failure to integrate academic interdisciplinary enrichment and practical preparedness/solutions in the educational system to combat climate change.

Lately, as a naturalist, his studies include the wild birds, birds of prey, ants, and other unusual species. He received a number of international awards and scientific appreciations; among those was a letter of appreciation from the former President of the Indian Society of Cell Biology, Veena Parnaik.

He has received awards from the Society of Wetland Scientists, the Global Diamond Award for Scientific Discovery (Singapore), and the Outstanding International Researcher Award for 2010.

Writer

In 1996, Savillo wrote a novel entitled Yelwa-Yauri, a love story set in countries on three continents, drawing on the experience of his own travels. As a screenwriter/writer, he uses the pseudonym "Sid". He was a former student of the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program.

External links

• Biography (2008) from the General Proceedings of the First SWS Asia Chapter's 2008 Asian Wetland Convention and Workshop, page 44