OLGA LOCK DE UGAZ

He graduated as a Chemical Engineer at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (1962), then studied for a Master’s Degree in Chemistry at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM, in Nuevo León, Mexico. (1968) and in 2003 he obtained a Doctorate in Chemical Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú within a Program for Professors of Recognized Academic Trajectory. It should be noted at this point that the orientation towards the investigation of medicinal plants was born during his Master’s studies having developed his thesis with the renowned and outstanding researcher Master Doctor Xorge A. Domínguez of whom he keeps very pleasant memories for his teachings

Olga’s teaching work was developed between 1969 and 1990 at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the UNMSM, of which she was its Dean in the last year, and from 1972 to 2005 at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, an institution where she He developed important research in the chemistry of natural products, investigating native Andean and Amazonian species with his undergraduate and postgraduate students, especially for medicinal and dyeing purposes, which is reflected in his almost one hundred scientific publications in national and international specialized magazines. in the two works of which she is the author: Methodologies for Research in Natural Products and Natural Dyes and co-author of two works on Ibero-American Medicinal Plants. Due to this, she has been considered in 2007 within the elite group of authors of scientific publications on medicinal plants in Peru. As a result of these investigations are almost 200 isolated molecules, of which approximately 15% were reported for the first time in the scientific literature.

For four decades she has participated in activities to promote and disseminate the chemistry of natural products in the country and abroad, due to which she was appointed as International Coordinator of the Ibero-American Network of Natural Products for Medicinal Use of the CYTED Program (1990- 1997), President of the Latin American Federation of Chemical Associations, FLAQ, between 2000 and 2002, and its Executive Secretary from 2006 to date, her participation in different Chemistry and Natural Products Congresses in the country and abroad (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Spain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, Paraguay and Switzerland), either as a Lecturer, presenting the results of their research, or as a member Organizing Committee. These participations have given him the opportunity to share with Nobel Prize laureates, as well as with representatives of the IUPAC, the American Chemical Society, ACS, and the different Chemical Societies of Latin America. Within Peru, she has offered a little more than a hundred scientific conferences in research institutions, university centers and professional associations, among others.

She is an Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Peru, a status that was conferred on her in 2005 due to her extraordinary scientific work and she was its President in two consecutive periods 1996-97 and 1998-99. As a member of the SQP, he organized and presided over various events, including the XIX Peruvian Chemical Congress (1995), the XXIV Latin American Chemical Congress in 2000, the Ibero-American Chemical Congress: 75 years of the Peruvian Chemical Society, and thus chaired Likewise, the Organizing Commission of the Ibero-American Congress of Chemistry for the 85th anniversary of the SQP that took place in October 2018. Among other activities in the SQP, the effort to prepare the SQP Calendars from 2011 to 2015 with very good reception for its content in chemical news and the La Química y Yo Contest, as an interesting way to promote chemistry not only in our schoolchildren but also among university students and professionals. She was, likewise, President of the Peruvian Association of Faculties and Schools of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, APFEIQ, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, and as such she organized the XXI Inter-American Congress of Chemical Engineering (2005).

She is an Honorary Professor at the San Agustín de Arequipa National University and the San Cristóbal de Huamanga-Ayacucho National University. She has carried out research stays at the Universities of Heilderbeg, Hamburg and Karlsruhe, Germany (1976, 1980, 1984), has been a Visiting Professor at the Academy of Sciences of the former USSR (1987) and at the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain (2003).

He has received several awards for his research work: CONCYTEC Awards (1989 and 1994), the Kessel-Sociedad Química del Perú Award (1993), from the Swiss Development Cooperation (1997 and 1999), from the Chemical College of Peru (1998). , distinction as a Great Professional in his specialty granted by Peruana de Opinión Pública (1999), from the Peruvian Association of Faculties and Schools of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (2000), from the Association of Chemical Engineers of Trujillo (2003), from the AOAC International (2003), from the Academic Directorate of Research of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2005), from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the National University of the Altiplano (2006), and from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the Universidad National Mayor of San Marcos (2006).

She is a Number Academic by the National Academy of Sciences, incorporated in 2008, then an Emeritus Academic and since 2019 she is an Honorary Academic. She was awarded as a Distinguished Member by the Lima Departmental Council of the College of Engineers of Peru in 2008 and 2013, and likewise distinguished by AFP Prima in the Intellectual Field in the 2009 Call for the Senior Adult Award. In 2011, he received recognition from the Peruvian Institute of Natural Products and the Chemical Society of Peru for his invaluable institutional collaboration, as well as a special recognition from the Chemical Society of Peru for his Outstanding Trajectory in the Field of Chemistry granted within the celebrations for the International Year of Chemistry.

In 2012, she is the eponym of the International Scientific Meeting, ECli 2012, receiving the Medal that accredits her as such in a ceremony held on July 31 of that year. In the month of November, she receives the Immigration Award granted by the Chinese-Peruvian Association in recognition of her outstanding intellectual career.

In 2014, he received recognition for his outstanding professional and academic career by the graduates of the FQIQ of the UNMSM, just as he received it in 1990. In 2016, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Department of Sciences of the Pontifical University Católica del Perú receives recognition as one of the first professors of the Chemical Section dedicated to research and forging new researchers; Added to this is the recognition received as one of the Pioneer Women in her activity in her classrooms within the MUJERES 100 PUCP ceremony for the 100 Years of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

In the past 2018, the VI Latin American Congress of Medicinal Plants has seen fit to consider her as her Eponym, for which she is deeply grateful. And in 2019 she receives recognition from the National Academy of Sciences within the activities for the International Year of Women. The PUCP Alumni Association did the same. Thank you very much. She has recently been recognized by CONCYTEC as a RENACYT Carlos Monge III Researcher.

In July 2022, in a virtual ceremony, she was incorporated as a Corresponding Academician of the Ibero-American Academy of Pharmacy Granada-Seville, and in which she offered the speech “Medicinal Plants in Peru: Tradition of Yesterday, Drugs of Tomorrow”. In March of this year, 2023, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, she received the Tribute from the Chapter of Chemical Engineers of the College of Engineers of Peru, CIP.

Before concluding this narration, which, as you will appreciate, is a recount of some recognitions received through the approximately 60 years of professional life, but there is no comment on the permanent efforts as a university teacher, the preparation of classes and exams and their qualification, the problems that arise in an investigation when the results are not as expected, which often means losing hours of sleep thinking, pondering what could be done to reverse the result, with the addition of a greater amount of A or B, or a greater heating or how to make a chromatography resolve a mixture better, or why the IR signal that one expects does not appear, why NMR only gives signals at less than so many parts per million, etc., etc. Truly “beautiful moments of worry”, of intrigue, of dispelling doubts, of thinking why I didn’t do this or that, and so on, etc., etc.

And now yes, before concluding, he wants to thank his parents, Carlos and Clara, who had no qualms about allowing him to pursue a career in chemical engineering, very unfeminine, at a time when very few “girls” did it. . Thanks to Dionisio, his dear companion with whom he shared so many years of family and professional life until the Lord took him away in the year 2000, to his six children: Alberto, Liliana, Patricia, Carlos, Jorge and Susann, who always encouraged him and They supported above all during the continuous trips that she had to make as RIPRONAMED Coordinator and for her participation in the different international events in which she had to participate, all her fellow students, colleagues, and students from both UNMSM and PUCP, and very much in special thanks to his thesis students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, with whom he shared many hours in the laboratory and in discussion and who currently as colleagues he has a beautiful friendship with many of them, and he gives a very special thanks to God for all that he has allowed him to do in favor of science and especially chemistry and for what still allows him to do.