Rey Donne S. Papa (born October 17, 1981) finished his B.Sc., M.Sc. (cum Laude) and Ph.D. (cum Laude) degrees at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). He holds the rank of Professor from the same university and teaches Zoology, Freshwater Biology, and Ecology courses to graduate and undergraduate students. In 2011, he established the UST Zooplankton, Ecology, Systematics, and Limnology (ZESL) research group. His laboratory houses the UST Zooplankton Reference Collection 鈥� the first and so far only existing organized repository of freshwater zooplankton in the Philippines. He has authored / co-authored more than 75 publications, mostly in freshwater zooplankton ecology and systematics and tropical limnology. These outputs were supported by projects with funding from the US National Academy of Science and USAID, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the International Society of Limnology (Tonolli Award), the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Science and Technology, the National Academy of Science and Technology, and the National Research Council of the Philippines. He has also been recognized by the National Academy of Science and Technology as an Outstanding Young Scientist in Biological Sciences (2021). From 2017 to 2019, he served as Chair of the UST Department of Biological Sciences before being appointed Dean of the UST College of Science 鈥� a post he has held since January 2020. He is likewise actively involved in professional and scientific organizations such as the National Research Council of the Philippines, the Association of Systematic Biologists of the Philippines, the World Association of Copepodologists, the Philippine Society for Freshwater Science, and the International Society of Limnology. In 2016, he was one of the lead organizers of the first-ever Philippine Symposium on Freshwater Biodiversity and Ecosystems (PSFBE) held at the University of Santo Tomas. Since 2018, he has been serving as the Vice President of the Philippine Society for Freshwater Science, established as an offshoot of the first PSFBE, and has been the National Ambassador of the Philippines to the International Society of Limnology since 2020.
