Perez is the first Filipino to win the ASEAN-US Science Prize for Women, an award to encourage promising female scientists working in Southeast Asia. She was recognized for her research using satellite data to improve agriculture for precision farming. Perez, who did her postdoctoral studies at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, was responsible for leading the Department of Science and Technology’s microsatellite program that successfully sent the Philippines’ first microsatellite—Diwata-1—into space in 2016. (Photo: University of the Philippines Diliman)