Ariel Orellana is a Plant Biologist who obtained his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Cell and Molecular Biology) from P. Universidad Católica de Chile. He spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA, supported by prestigious fellowships from the PEW charitable trust and the National of Institute of Health (NIH). He started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago where He became Associate Professor and spent ten years before moving to Universidad Andrés Bello where He founded and directed the Center for Plant Biotechnology.

Dr. Orellana´s research has been focused on the biosynthesis of plant cell wall polysaccharides. Also, his interests have been in genomics and proteomics in fruits and plant species living under extreme conditions. To date, He has published more than 84 articles (SCOPUS) in peer review journals including prestigious journals such as Science, Nature Genetics, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has been an invited speaker at different conferences and meetings, including the Gordon Research Conferences. Also, He has been invited to give seminars in several Institutions worldwide, including the University of Cambridge, University of California, Boston University, Max Planck Institute, among others. His work has been cited 5454 times (Google Scholar), and his H-Index is 40 (Google Scholar). He has taught cell biology for undergrads and Ph.D. students and trained more than 50 undergraduate students. He has also mentored 13 Ph.D. students and 12 postdoctoral fellows. He has served in different committees at the national level (accreditation of doctoral programs, Fondecyt grants study section, Doctoral degree scholarship, among others). He also served as an advisor for the Ministry of Economy on a study on the fruit industry and the Senate on the DNA Registry Law.

Dr. Orellana has received a number of Awards and Honors during his career: “Outstanding Young Scientist” award by the Chilean Society of Biology (1996); President of the Chilean Society for Cell Biology (2001-2002); member of the “Frontiers in Science Program” by the Chilean Academy of Sciences (2004-2007). In 2011 He was appointed by the President of the Nation as a member of the Higher Council for Science, becoming its President during 2013. He served in this position until 2014. In 2014 He was appointed as VicePresident for Research and Doctoral Programs at Universidad Andrés Bello, a position that he held until 2022.