New UPLB chancellor named

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – The University of the Philippines (UP) here will have a new chancellor on Nov. 1.

Fernando Sanchez Jr., currently the vice chancellor for planning and development, will succeed Rex Victor Cruz, whose term ends on Oct. 31.

Sanchez is the eighth to hold the top UPLB post since the university became an autonomous campus of the UP system in 1972. 

Aside from UPLB, the other autonomous campuses of the UP system are UP-Diliman, UP Manila, UP Visayas in Iloilo, UP Cebu, UP Mindanao in Davao City, UP Open University ( also in Los Baños), and UP Baguio.

Sanchez, 48, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and Masters of Science in Environmental Science from UPLB. He earned his doctorate in Landscape Architecture from the Tokyo University of Agriculture in 1998.

As a landscape horticulturist, planner, arborist and UPLB official for the past 26 years, Sanchez has specialized in landscape and turf management, and landscape planning.

He designed several sites in the UPLB and UP campuses, and other agencies here and abroad, including the centennial marker of Jose Rizal in Hibiya Park in Tokyo.