by Nathaniel C. Patdu
Undergraduate biology students of the Department of Biological Sciences won the top awards again in the 24th Annual Philippine Biodiversity Symposium of the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines (BCSP) held at the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Samar last April 14-17, 2015.
Marco Luis E. Lumontod won the Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award for his thesis entitled “Distribution and Habitat Preferences of Restricted- Range Bird Species in Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP), Negros Occidental, Philippines” while Nathaniel C. Patdu won third place for his study entitled “Abundance and Habitat Requirements of Philippine Tube-nosed Fruit Bat Nyctimene rabori (Heaney and Peterson, 1984) in Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP), Negros Occidental.”
For the poster category, Salih Mahathir A. Amer won the Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award for his thesis entitled “Diversity and Abundance of Canopy Birds in Northern Negros Natural Park, Negros Occidental” while Dearly Mae Maricar M. Barrot won second place for her study entitled “Distribution, Diversity and Abundance of Amphibians in Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP), Negros Occidental.”
All winning papers were product of the collaborative partnership between MSU-IIT and the Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PBCFI). Prof. Dennis A. Warguez is the adviser of these researches while Godfrey Philip C. Jakosalem and Lisa Marie J. Paguntalan of PBCFI are the external advisers.
MSU-IIT garnered the most awards in the said contest which was participated in by a total of ten schools including the University of the Philippines – Diliman and the University of Santo Tomas. With this victory, MSU – IIT has dominated the competition for 3 consecutive years and has set higher standards for future aspiring contenders.