photo by Aaron Vicencio, for the Arete Magisterial Lectures

Inez Ponce de Leon began her love affairs with debate, writing, and public speaking at an early age. She wrote poems, designed dresses, made up short stories, and soon, shifted her work to writing novels. Today, Inez still does all these, and bellydances, too!

She graduated with a bachelor of science (cum laude) and a masters degree, both in molecular biology and biotechnology, from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. While she did love lab work, she knew that she wasn’t cut out for it. What she did find interesting, however, was communicating with a wide variety of audiences and sharing her love for science. She loved the stories of science. Science communication then became her primary research interest (and current obsession).

Inez has two self-published novels: Sanctuary and The Romantic. When she is not working on her novels or research papers, Inez hangs out with friends, bellydances, reads a wide variety of books, and watches a lot of movies and TV shows.

She also eats whatever she can get her hands on, but you didn’t read that here.

Today, Inez holds a PhD in science communication from Purdue University. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication at the Ateneo de Manila University, her happy place, and a true home. She teaches belly dance, qualitative communication research, issues in science communication, and popular science communication. She also writes a weekly column, Question the Box, for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippines’ most widely circulated newspaper.