Dr. Cynthia Palmes-Saloma is the present dean of the College of Science and is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Principal Investigator at the Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Biology (LMCB) at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in the University of the Philippines Diliman.

As the dean of the UP Diliman College of Science, home to the highest concentration of PhD faculty members at 212, Dr. Saloma leads a college composed of four (4) national institutes, eight (8) CHED National Centers of Excellence with a student population of 1800 undergraduate and 1000 graduate students in the current academic year. Prior to her current position, Dr. Saloma served as the Executive Director of the UP Philippine Genome Center at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.   She is one of the founding four members of the UP PGC, the multidisciplinary R&D institution in genomics established in the University of the Philippines System in  2009 and where she founded and headed until 2016 the DNA Sequencing Core Facility prior to her appointment at the helm of the Center in 2017.  Under her leadership, the Philippine Genome Center played a critical role in our nation’s response against the COVID-19 pandemic by providing the needed genomic biosurveillance information in identifying and pinpointing through whole genome sequencing the SARS-CoV-2 variants and Variants of Concern (VOCs) circulating in our communities and entering our international borders. 

Dr. Saloma received her Ph.D. in Physiology and her MS in Medical Science from Osaka University, Japan. She holds two Bachelor’s degrees, one in Molecular Biology from Nagoya University and the other in Fisheries (Inland Fisheries) from UP Visayas graduating with magna cum laude honors. As an outstanding alumna, Nagoya University awarded Dr. Palmes-Saloma the Nagoya University Award for Contributions to International Exchange in 2021.

For her contributions to the field, she was a recipient of the 1994 Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) Award in the field of Biophysics by the National Academy of Science and Technology (Philippines).  In recognition of her contributions in our nation’s response against the COVID-19 pandemic, Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award as well as the Presidential Order of Lapu-Lapu with the rank of Magalong were conferred to Dr. Palmes-Saloma in 2022.