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The University of the Philippines Los Baños (also referred to as UPLB, UP Los Baños, or Elbi) is a public university located in the towns of Los Baños and Bay in the province of Laguna, some 64 kilometers southeast of Manila. It traces its roots to the UP College of Agriculture (UPCA), which was founded in 1909 by the American colonial government to promote agricultural education and research in the Philippines. American botanist Edwin Copeland served as its first dean. UPLB was formally established in 1972 following the union of UPCA with four other Los Baños and Diliman-based University of the Philippines (UP) units. The university has played an influential role in Asian agriculture and biotechnology due to its pioneering efforts in plant breeding and bioengineering, particularly in the development of high-yielding and pest-resistant crops. In recognition of its work, it was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding in 1977. Nine research centers are recognized as Centers of Excellence by presidential decree.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Executive Order No. 889 – Establishing a System of National Centers of Excellence in the Basic Sciences )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 A Brief History of Science & Technology in the Philippines )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Participatory Policy Development for the Lowland Rainfed Rice-Based Farming Systems towards Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development: A Case Study of Nueva Ecija, Philippines )〕 UPLB hosts a number of local and international research centers, including the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), ASEAN Center for Biodiversity, World Agroforestry Centre, and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). UPLB offers more than 100 degree programs in various disciplines through its nine colleges and two schools. As of Academic Year 2012-2013 the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has accredited nine academic units as Centers of Excellence and two as Centers of Development,〔 giving UPLB the largest number of Centers of Excellence (research and academic units combined) among all universities in the country.〔〔〔〔〔 UPLB alumni have been recognized in a wide range of fields. They include 13 scientists awarded the title National Scientist of the Philippines, members of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize;〔(【引用サイトリンク】 UP's Climate Change Experts )〕 Palanca Award winners;〔(【引用サイトリンク】 DHUM's Piocos wins in Palanca Awards )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Two DHUM profs big winners at the Palancas )〕 as well as political and business leaders. ==History== UPLB was originally established as the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) on 6 March 1909, by the UP Board of Regents. Edwin Copeland, an American botanist and Thomasite from the Philippine Normal College in Manila, served as its first dean.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 UPLB History )〕〔 Classes began in June 1909 with five professors, and 12 students initially enrolled in the program.〔 The Forestry School was established a year later.〔 During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, UPCA was closed and the campus converted into an internment camp for allied nationals and a headquarters of the Japanese army.〔 For three years, the college was home to more than 2,000 civilians, mostly Americans, that were captured by the Japanese. In 1945, as part of the liberation of the Philippines, the US Army sent 130 11th Airborne Division paratroopers to Los Baños to rescue the internees.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 The Los Banos Prison Camp Raid – The Philippines 1945 )〕 Only four paratroopers and two Filipino guerrillas were killed in the raid. However, Japanese reinforcements arrived two days later, destroying UPCA facilities〔〔 and killing some 1,500 Filipino civilians in Los Baños soon afterwards.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Remember Los Baños 1945 )〕 UPCA became the first unit of the University of the Philippines to open after the war when it resumed classes on 25 July 1945, with Leopoldo Uichangco as dean. However, only 125 (16 percent) of the original students enrolled. It was even worse for the School of Forestry, which only had nine students. Likewise, only 38 professors returned to teach. UPCA used its ₱470,546 (US$10,800)〔Approximate conversion value as of May 2011〕 share in the Philippine-US War Damage Funds (released in 1947) for reconstruction. Further financial endowments from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Mutual Security Agency (MSA) allowed the construction of new facilities, while scholarship grants, mainly from the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Cooperation Administration, helped fund training of UPCA faculty. From 1947 to 1958, a total of 146 faculty members had been granted MS and PhD scholarships in US universities.〔 Dioscoro Umali became UPCA dean in 1959. Umali's administration oversaw the creation of IRRI, SEARCA (of which he was the first director), and the Department of Food Science and Technology. New facilities were also constructed under his Five-Year Development Program. In 1972, UPCA requested Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to allow the college to secede from the University of the Philippines due to the alleged withholding of its budget and the disapproval of curricular proposals.〔 However, UP President Salvador P. Lopez strongly opposed the idea. A survey found that there was very little support for complete independence at UPCA. As a compromise, Lopez proposed the transformation of UP into a system of autonomous constituent universities. Finally, on 20 November 1972, Presidential Decree No. 58 was signed, establishing UPLB as UP's first autonomous campus, with UPCA, College of Forestry, Agricultural Credit and Cooperatives Institute, Dairy Training and Research Institute, and the Diliman-based Agrarian Reform Institute as its first academic units.〔〔〔 New colleges and research centers were created over the next few years, while the College of Veterinary Medicine was likewise transferred to UPLB from UP Diliman.〔 In 2010 Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco's administration oversaw the implementation of a policy allowing for larger lecture classes to improve the "absorptive capacity" of the university by more than 500 students and to give them better access to some of the more seasoned professors. It increased the class size of 25 to 40 students to a much larger 120 to 175 for general education and foundation courses. The policy has been criticized by various groups in UPLB. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「University of the Philippines Los Baños」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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