Ma. Mercedes G. Planta is Associate Professor of History at the Department of History and Faculty Affiliate of the Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman. Her work focuses on the history of medicine and colonial Southeast Asia. She is currently Deputy Editor of the Regional Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (RJSEAS), an international, peer-reviewed journal that seeks to provide a platform for Southeast Asian scholars based in Southeast Asia to share their research internationally. Her book, Traditional Medicine in the Colonial Philippines, 16th to the 19th Century (2017), was awarded Best Book in Science by the National Book Awards of the Philippines in 2018. In the same year, she was awarded the Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellowship by the American Philosophical Society. In 2019, she was also conferred the title University Scientist of the University of the Philippines System.