Culmination of International Women’s Month and Flag Raising Ceremony March 27, 2017 8:00 AM, Gymnasium
The MSU-IIT held its first choreographed crowd formation illustrating the logo of International Women’s Month yesterday morning, March 27, 2017 during the Flag Raising Ceremony held at 8:00 at the Gymnasium.
About 1,000 students of the Integrated Development School (IDS) held up 800 purple balloons to form the logo symbolizing International Women’s month (see photos).
The National Women’s Month celebration is part of the global celebration of International Women’s Month. Republic Act 6949 S. 1990 declared March 8 as National Women’s Day.
The Institute’s cultural groups Ringkaran, Echoes Band, Dance Society, Kalimulan Dance Troupe, IPAG and the participants of last year’s Gender and Development (GAD) workshop called 22 K also performed during the program.
Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol and Vice Chancellor for Research & Extension Dr. Jinky B. Bornales delivered messages extolling the significance of women’s contribution to society.
Program hosts were the Department of Chemistry, College of Science & Mathematics and the Cultural Development Office.
Photo credits: Aerial photos and stills by Jez Timonera Orbe; videography and stills by JD Enriquez, Office of Publication and Information (OPI)
Charlie A. Lavilla, Jr., a faculty member of the Department of Chemistry, is one of the five Filipino researchers and the only one from Mindanao to receive the 1st Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Newton PhD Scholarships to pursue a Ph.D. degree in five separate universities in the United Kingdom.
Lavilla is attending Nottingham Trent University after his project proposal was accepted. The project aims to develop a targeted low-cost food supplementation strategy in the treatment and prevention of muscle damage in people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In three years Lavilla is expected to finish his PhD in Biomedical Sciences.
The research project falls under the health and life sciences priority area of the program, which also includes environmental resilience, energy security, future cities, agri-tech, and digital innovation and creativity.
“This is an opportunity to have an academic standing in an international setting,” said Lavilla. For him, not only would he obtain a PhD degree, it would also be an avenue to find prospect collaborators and to contribute to the community through his research.
As a graduate of both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Institute, the scholar expressed how his education from the MSU-IIT has prepared him for any endeavor he has set his heart on for he said he has finally found a discipline he has long been searching for. The opportunity is in line with what the Institute is aiming for, that is, to be a research university.
The scholarship means a lot more to Lavilla. As the only DOST Newton PhD scholar coming from Mindanao, Lavilla considers this as a recognition to Mindanao’s capacity for research.
If his research project is converted to technology soon and becomes accessible, he hopes to continue what has been started in the Tuklas Lunas Center, a drug discovery and development program initiated by DOST- Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) under IIT’s management.
The scholarship is a joint program of the British Council and the DOST to be managed by the Newton Fund with the objective of strengthening research and innovation in promoting economic development and social welfare of the partner country, the Philippines.
Dr. Mylene M. Uy of the Chemistry Department of the College of Science and Mathematics is in Gainesville, Florida, USA to undergo training on medicinal chemistry.
Uy will go through the training program at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida from February 20 to April 3, 2014.
Uy’s training program includes learning a variety of assays, like MTT/cancer cell viability assays, transfection and reporter gene assays, as well as structure determination using high-field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) instruments.
Uy is also a recipient of a $5,000-NMR time grant from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) User Program, which she can use to perform NMR experiments at the Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) Facility of the University of Florida. The said grant is renewable up to three years for a total of $15,000.
The training program on medicinal chemistry is under the Research Laboratory of Uy’s collaborator, Dr. Hendrik Luesch.
Uy’s training is funded by the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), and charged to Bases Conversion Development ACT 0F 1992 (R.A. 7917).
