Roman Lucero Kintanar Ph.D. (June 13, 1929 – May 6, 2007) was a

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

in the field of

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

Biography

Kintanar was born in

Cebu City Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu, is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 964,169 people, making ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Kintanar received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Physics at the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

in 1951 before earning a Ph.D. at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

. He was a member of the

Upsilon Sigma Phi The Upsilon Sigma Phi () is the oldest Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia. Founded in 1918, it is also the oldest student organization in continuous existence in the University of the Philippines. It has two chapters—an integra ...

fraternity.

Career

Kintanar started out as a weather observer in 1948. On August 1, 1958, he was appointed as the Director of the Weather Bureau, later named the

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (, abbreviated as PAGASA , which means "hope" as in the Tagalog word ''pag-asa'') is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) agency of the P ...

(PAGASA), at the age of 29, the youngest person to hold such a position in Filipino Government service, and stayed in that position for almost 40 years. During his tenure as the head of PAGASA, Kintanar was appointed Third Vice-President of WMO in 1978 before becoming the President of the eighth

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

(WMO) congress in 1979, and was re-elected for another four-year term as the President of the WMO on 1983.

Death and afterward

Kintanar died of cancer on May 6, 2007, at his residence in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

. An asteroid ( 6636 Kintanar) was named after him in 2007 for his contributions to the science of meteorology.

Awards

*1978: Parangal ng PAGASA award *1980: Lingkod Bayan Award, Career Executive Service Board *1981: Public Service Award, Office of the President *1995: International Meteorological Organization Prize *1996: Presidential Citation Award by the then President

Fidel V. Ramos Fidel Valdez Ramos (; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reached ...

*2007:

Philippine Legion of Honor The Philippine Legion of Honor (; ) was established by President Manuel Roxas, through Philippine Army Circular No. 60 dated July 3, 1947. The Philippine Legion of Honour, Honor was patterned after the Legion of Merit of the United States of Amer ...

with the Rank of Grand Officer (Marangal na Pinuno) for his work in various international cooperations for tropical cyclone and earthquake disaster mitigation programs by President

Gloria Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal-Arroyo (; born April 5, 1947), often referred to as PGMA or GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician who served as the 14th president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010. She is the longest-serving president ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kintanar, Roman 1929 births 2007 deaths Filipino meteorologists People from Cebu City University of Texas at Austin alumni University of the Philippines alumni