Dr. Velasquez is a pioneer in Philippine physiology. He was elected as Academician on 1978 and conferred as National Scientist on 1982. He made the original intensive study of the local Myxophyceae or the blue green algae and dedicates at least 30 years of fruitful work in the study of Philippine algae from which he acknowledged local and international credit.
Way back, he was a laboratory assistant in the Department of Botany, University of the Philippines until he became Professor in Botany in 1958. He was selected Emeritus Professor when he stop working in November 1967.
Among his abundant honors are Distinguished Science Medal and Diploma of Honor from the Republic of the Philippines (1956), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1956-57). He is also honored in the Men of Science, Division of Biological Sciences in1969, World’s Who’s Who in Sciences in 1970 and the Republic of the Philippines Cultural Heritage award in 1972.