Ariel Orellana, Ph.D. is a plant biologist with a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Cellular and Molecular Biology) at the Catholic University of 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 endowment and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
He began his independent career in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, where he spent ten years before moving to Andres Bello University (UNAB) where he founded the Center for Plant Biotechnology. In addition to being a researcher, he is currently Vice-Rector for Research at UNAB