Assoc. Prof. Sumaya, who teaches at the Department of Biological Sciences of MSU-IIT’s College of Science and Mathematics (CSM), will impart her professional and personal experiences of working in the field of nematology with her talk entitled Life after nematology graduate studies: making the most of every opportunity to learn, lead and serve during the Nematology Seminar Day 2021 that will be held on May 19, 2021.
Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) faculty member Assoc. Prof. Nanette Hope Sumaya’s talk will be one of the highlights in the Nematology Seminar Day 2021, an annual event organized by the Faculty of Science of Ghent University (UGent) in Ghent, Belgium, in association with Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad -Universitaire Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIR-UOS), Nematology Education in Sub-Sahara Africa (NEMEDUSSA), and the Eramus + Programme of the European Union.
This year, the seminar focuses talks about life after getting a degree in Nematology and career development. A workshop on “Let’s talk Gender!’’ will also take place in the afternoon.
Assoc. Prof. Sumaya, an alumna of International MSc in Agro- and Environmental Nematology (IMaNema), formerly known as Postgraduate International Nematology Course or PINC, was invited by IMaNema of UGent to speak to students at Auditorium 6 of Campus Ledeganck, 04.10 – L2.
Aside from Assoc. Prof. Sumaya’s talk, the event will also feature talks of other invited speakers, namely, Mrs. Lirette M. Taning of ILVO and UGent (Faculty of Biotechnology); Dr. Annika Pieterse of Nemlab/ Stellenbosch University in South Africa; Mr. David Pires of MED/University of Évora & INIAV in Portugal; Dr. Sidy Diakhate of Green Agro Consulting in Sénégal; Mrs. Lilian Mendoza, the Director of the Human Resources Department of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria; and Dr. Gundula Fisher, a social scientist and gender expert from IITA-CGIAR.
The Seminar Day, which is organized in the frame of the Summer Course: Networking and Seminars for the IMaNema students, is also open to the public and can be followed online.
The Department of Physics of MSU-IIT led the conduct of the first virtual annual conference of the more than two decades- old Samahang Pisika ng Visayas at Mindanao (SPVM).
“ConVIRTUALisation,” the 22nd SPVM National Physics Conference was conducted via the video conferencing app, Zoom, on October 17, 24, and 31, 2020.
The three-day event charged no registration fee, had 15 plenary speakers, and boasted an attendance of about 350 international and local participants.
The SPVM is a very active and independent association of physics teachers, researchers, and students from Visayas and Mindanao that is based in MSU-IIT.
Its annual conference is conducted in cooperation with two other universities – Silliman University in Dumaguete City and Mapua University in Manila.
The scientific talks at the 22nd SPVM conference were grouped as follows: Materials and Functions held on October 17; Science Education and Fundamental Physics held on October 24; and Biophysics and Complex Systems held on October 31.
Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol of MSU-IIT, Dr. Betty Cernol-McCan, President of Silliman University, and Dr. Reynaldo B. Vea, President of Mapua University, delivered messages of support for the conduct of the conference and to the organization.
During the closing ceremonies held on October 31, SPVM welcomed 52 new members from all over the country and inducted newly elected officers that will constitute the leadership of SPVM.
Dr. Eli Christopher I. Enobio and Dr. Rolando T. Candidato, Jr., both from the Department of Physics of MSU-IIT were the new SPVM President and Vice-President, respectively.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Enobio invoked the four I’s: Information, Interest, Incentive, Involvement, which he envisions to be the guiding pillars of SPVM to achieve its objectives in the new normal.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Physics and SPVM conducted a series of online trainings and webinars since March 2020.
In his status report and exit speech as the Officer-in-Charge of SPVM, Dr. Mark Nolan P. Confesor said that it was a testament to the resiliency of the organization when it stayed true to its mandate of promoting and furthering physics research and education in the country.
For more information about SPVM and its upcoming activities, please visit the website:https://spvm.org.ph/.
For the second time in a row, MSU-IIT marks International Cosmic Day (ICD) in the Institute by holding a series of lectures and participating in a one-day international collaborative meeting (video conference) where scientists, teachers, and students meet to talk and learn about cosmic rays.
MSU-IIT participates in the November 6 ICD along with 67 other schools, universities, and research institutes from over 15 countries.
The observance of the ICD in the Institute is led by the Mindanao Radiation Physics Center (MRPC) of the Premier Research Institute of Science and Mathematics (PRISM) and the Physics Department, with the assistance of the Center for MSU-IIT e-Learning (CMeL).
The ICD, which is already on its 8th year, is organized by Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), the largest accelerator center in Germany conducting a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary scientific research in high energy physics, photon science, and particle accelerators.
ICD serves as a platform where groups of scientists from renowned collaborations like Fermilab, International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG), NETZWERK TEILCHEMWELT, and QuarkNet, and teachers and students meet for one day to learn about cosmic rays and carry out an experiment with secondary cosmic ray particles.
During the ICD, school groups from across the globe get together to ask questions like: What are cosmic particles? Where do they come from? How can they be measured?
According to MRPC head Dr. Angelina M. Bacala, the series of lectures is held on November 6 from 2:00-4:00 in the afternoon at the Conference Room on the 3rd floor of the PRISM building.
Vernie C. Convicto, a PhD Physics student, gives a lecture on the overview and nature of cosmic rays that is followed by a lecture and demonstration on muon detection by Prof. Lowell Pamatong of the Physics Department.
Vanessa Destura, MS Physics student, gives a talk on the applications of muon, the most abundant of the charged cosmic ray particles at sea level, in imaging.
The goal of the ICD is to investigate the zenith angle dependency of particle showers induced by cosmic rays. In the absence or inaccessibility to functional Cosmic Ray Detector, participating groups or institutions can analyze publicly-available data through the learning platform Cosmic@Web, along with the background knowledge, description of the experiments and data sets and how it can be interpreted.
To conclude the ICD2019, an international video conference is made for international exchanges of the results and analysis of the data, description of the detector, and presentation of school, institute, and country.
Prof. Pamatong, on the evening of November 6, leads more than two dozen Physics students at the CMeL during the ICD2019 video conference where he reports the results of the analysis of the angular distribution of cosmic ray muons.
From left to right: Mr. Vernie C. Convicto and Mr. Abdurajan B. Lintasan holding their certificates of recognition.
TWO PhD Physics Students, Mr. Vernie C. Convicto and Mr. Abdurajan B. Lintasan, bagged Best Presenter awards in the recently concluded 17th South-East Asia Congress of Medical Physics (SEACOMP) held last August 8 -10, 2019 at Bintang Bali Resort, Bali Indonesia. As awardees, they received a cash prize of PhP 3,500.
Mr. Convicto won Best Oral Presenter for his paper entitled “Monte Carlo Study of Nuclear Fragmentation in Water Irradiated with Protons and 12C Ions for Particle Therapy Application” while Mr. Lintasan won Best Poster Presenter for his paper entitled “Kinetic Energy of Secondary Fragments of Carbon-12 at Varying Incident Energies in Different Biological Media – A Monte Carlo Study”.
Both papers are products of the research initiatives of the Mindanao Radiation Physics Center (MRPC) and the Physics Department of the Institute under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Therese J. Quiñones and the head of MRPC, Dr. Angelina M. Bacala
Left to right: The MSU-IIT delegates in the 17th SEACOMP – Mr. Vernie C. Convicto, Dr. Angelina M. Bacala, Ms. Dainna Recel S. Pamisa, and Mr. Abdurajan B. Lintasan.
Other attendees in the conference from MSU-IIT are Dr. Angelina M. Bacala and Ms. Dainna Recel S. Pamisa.
The 17th SEACOMP, which had the theme “Improvement of Patient Care and Safety through the innovation in Medical Physics” this year, was held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual Scientific Meeting on Medical Physics and Biophysics (PIT-FMB). This congress boasts of a comprehensive scientific programme including plenary talks, and oral and poster presentations in the different disciplines in medical physics, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, radiation protection, radiobiology, and new emerging techniques. Selected papers presented in the congress will be published in the IOP Journal of Physics Conference Series (https://www.pitfmb.org/).
Jessalyn C. Grumo, a PhD Physics student, and Marco Laurence M. Budlayan, an MS Physics student, were awarded as Best Oral Presenters in The 9th International Conference on Advanced Materials Research (ICAMR 2019) held at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House, National University of Singapore, Singapore last January 24-27, 2019.
Jessalyn Grumo (left) accepts her certificate as Best Presenter in ICAMR 2019.
Grumo presented her research study entitled “Synthesis and characterization of Bio-based Rigid Polyurethane Foams with Varying Amount of Blowing Agent” while Budlayan’s winning presentation was entitled “Influence of Sargassum Crassifolium Extract on the Absorption of Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle via Green Synthesis Route”. This is the second Best Presenter Award for Grumo who received the first last April 15, 2017 in the 2nd International Conference on Basic and Applied Sciences (ICBAS) 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. Two graduate students also presented in the said conference, namely Lady Jaharah Y. Jabber and Prudence Peace V. Bustamante. All four are under the advisorship of Dr. Arnold C. Alguno.
Marco Laurence M. Budlayan (right) accepts his certificate as Best Presenter in the ICAMR 2019.
The ICAMR is an annual conference first launched in 2011. It provides researchers, scholars and scientists an avenue for discourse and exchange of ideas in the areas of composite materials, materials properties, measuring methods and applications, materials engineering and processing technologies, chemical engineering and biotechnological research, nanotechnology, nano-materials and nano-composites and thin films research. Every year, renowned keynote speakers and researchers from different countries participate in the parallel oral presentations and poster sessions. ICAMR 2019 conference proceedings will be published by Key Engineering Materials (KEM), ISSN:1662-9795, indexed by Ei Compendex, SCOPUS, SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), etc. For more information about ICAMR, visit their site: http://www.icamr.org/.
Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Health, Research, and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) will address the Pre-Commencement and Recognition Ceremonies of the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) on April 7, 2013.
Public Health expert Dr. Montoya is Professor of the Department of Medicine, University of the Philippines College of Medicine, a Consultant on Infectious Diseases at the Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, and a Consultant of the Clinical Deparment, Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Health.
An Infectious Disease Specialist who trained in Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr. Montoya’s impeccable credentials are certified by the Royal College of Physicians, London, U.K. and the Philippine Board of Internal Medicine.
His professional awards include fellowships at the University of California, Davis, Cornell University, New York City, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. He is also a chartered biologist recognized by the Institute of Biology, U.K., and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of Doctors, Singapore.
He is a Fellow of the Philippine College of Physicians (FPCP), the Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (FPSMID), and the American College of Physicians (FACP) besides holding the distinction of being an Honorary Fellow of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians of Thailand, and the Royal Institute of Doctors, Singapore.
The USAID through the Infectious Disease Control Program of the Department of Health commissioned him as program evaluator because of his extensive experience in tuberculosis control and the control of emerging infections. His expertise was put to good use when he acted as consultant for the Department of Health during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
As an international expert, he successfully formed the ASEAN Network for Drugs, Diagnostics and Vaccines Innovation (ASEAN-NDI) with the help of the ASEAN and WHO-TDR. He is also the Philippine focal person for biotechnology for ASEAN and for the Health Sciences for EU. He is a member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Global fund for AIDS, TB and malaria, the Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific of the International Council of Science, the Scientific Planning Group for Asia Pacific of the International Council of Science for Human Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment, and the lone Philippine expert of the WHO Western Pacific Region Clinical Advisory Committee for Emerging Infections.
With over twenty awards highlighting his contributions in medical research, education, medical writing, medical society leadership, and community service, including the Outstanding Young Scientist of the Philippines award in 1998 and the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines in 2001, Montoya is recognized by the Department of Health (DOH) for his significant contributions to SARS prevention and control.
He is the first recipient of the National Academy of Science and Technology-Lino Ed Lim Educational Development Foundation Inc. Award for Outstanding Research in Tropical Medicine for 2005.
For his significant contributions in the control of tuberculosis, he was awarded the 2007 Manuel L. Quezon Award by the DOH and the Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis.
He was recently elected member of the National Academy of Science and Technology, the most prestigious body composed of only 56 scientists to date, and was awarded the title of “Academician” in 2008. The NAST advices the President on national issues about science and technology.
Dr. Montoya is the first recipient of the prestigious Dr. Jose P. Rizal Award for Research given in May 2010 by the Philippine Medical Association; he is also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2010 of the U.P. System.
For being an outstanding public official in the field of science and health, he was conferred the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award by President Aquino in September 2012.
The MSU-IIT ceremony is set at 8:00 a.m. at the MSU-IIT Gymnasium.
