Elected as Academician in 1978, Dr. Lopez was named as the Father of the Philippine Linguistics. He is renowned because of his pioneering work in the growth of a Filipino custom in the scientific study of Philippine Language.
A lot of of his works are measured classics such as A Manual to the Philippine National Language, two sequels of a Comparative Philippine World List in 1974 and 1976 and A Handbook of Comparative Austronesian in 1978 and in two parts: the mnemonic, consisting of 109 problems of proto-morphs answered in five Indonesian languages, two Melanesian languages; the heuristic, as well as 24 Philippine languages and 192 proto-Austronesian morphs.
In 1970 Dr. Lopez was honored a plaque and gold medal as Outstanding Alumnus of the University of the Philippines. Dr. Lopez was receiver of a number of honors and awards. He was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in Linguistics at Yale University in Michigan.