The National Academy of Science and Technology-Philippines (NAST-Philippines) recently recognized four faculty members and a REPS (research, extension, and professional staff) from the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Science (CS) for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of the country’s science and technology.

Of the five UPD scientists, two were named academician, two were awarded as outstanding young scientists (OYS), and one won the 2023 NAST-Philippines Talent Search for Young Scientists (NTSYS) grand prize.

Academicians. Gil S. Jacinto, PhD, of the CS The Marine Science Institute (MSI) and Maria Corazon A. de Ungria, PhD, of the UPD Natural Sciences Research Institute (NSRI), were honored as academicians for their works in marine chemistry and in forensic DNA technology, respectively.

Jacinto’s pioneering research on eutrophication caused by nutrient loading and its effects on water column chemistry and deoxygenation, highlighted the threat of deoxygenation to mariculture and marine biodiversity in the country, the Western Pacific region, and the tropical world.

He established the Marine Chemistry and Pollution Laboratory at the MSI, the first chemical oceanography laboratory in the Philippines.

Jacinto’s research interests are in nutrient and trace elements in tropical marine environments, marine pollution chemistry, submarine groundwater discharge, hypoxia, and seawater carbonate chemistry.

Jacinto is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (IOC-WESTPAC), the Philippine representative to the IOC Executive Council and General Assembly since 2015, and a member of the high-level expert group of the UNESCO-IOC Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO₂NE) since 2016.

He was the MSI director (2000-2006) and the UP System assistant vice president for academic affairs for internationalization (2017-2020) and concurrent director of the Office of International Linkages (2017-2020).

Meanwhile, De Ungria is known for her research in human population genetics and forensic DNA technology that serves as a tool for human identification in criminal investigation, disaster victim identification, and resolving parentage disputes. She provided technical assistance in drafting the Supreme Court Rule on DNA evidence which was approved in 2007. Since then, the rule has been followed by all Philippine courts and has effectively aided the Philippine judicial system in handling sexual assault cases.

De Ungria holds the rank of career scientist 4 in the Scientific Career System of the Department of Science and Technology and the Civil Service Commission. She is a university researcher V, the highest rank for REPS at UP.

De Ungria received numerous prestigious awards the most recent of which is the Rotary Golden Wheel Award for Supporting Education in 2023.

She is the director of the Program on Biodiversity, Ethnicity, and Forensics at the Philippine Genome Center and concurrently heads the DNA Laboratory of the NSRI.

The title “academician” is a peer recognition. A scientist joins the roster if s/he obtained more than 50 percent of the votes of the total membership of NAST-Philippines. The membership is the Academy’s policy-making body.

The OYS. Jillian Aira S. Gabo-Ratio, DEng of the CS National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS), and Reinabelle C. Reyes, PhD, of the CS National Institute of Physics (NIP) were recognized as this year’s OYS in the field of earth resources engineering, and astrophysics, respectively.

Gabo-Ratio is an associate professor at NIGS, and is the institute’s officer-in-charge-deputy director for academic affairs.

Her research interests are in economic geology, igneous and sedimentary geochemistry, geophysics, and tectonics.

A topnocher in the 2006 Geology Licensure Examination, Gabo-Ratio is a recipient of the UP Alumni of Michigan Centennial Professorial Chair (2021), One UP Faculty Grant (2019-2021), UPD Centennial Faculty Grant (2017-2021), and the UP System International Publication Award (2017-2022).

Reyes, an associate professor at the NIP, made international and national headlines in 2010 with Confirmation of General Relativity on Large Scales from Weak Lensing and Galaxy Velocities which confirmed Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity beyond the confines of the solar system or in a cosmic scale, earning her the moniker “The Filipina Who Proved Einstein Right.”

Her research work was published in the high-profile journal Nature and has been cited more than 200 times. 

In 2020, she established the NIP Data and Computation Research Group which is engaged in data-driven astrophysics and computational physics and has presented their works at the 2021 and 2022 Samahan ng Pisika ng Pilipinas conferences.

Reyes is the adviser and co-implementer of the Physics Meetup, a project that brings together physics students from the Philippines to interact directly with prominent scientists around the world.

The OYS award is given annually to young Filipino scientists who have made significant contributions to science and technology. In addition, the awardee should be “of exceptional ability to undertake scientific research as evidenced by papers published in reputable scientific journals.”

NTSYS. Jayson G. Cosme, PhD, is this year’s grand-prize winner at the 2023 NTSYS.

Cosme, an associate professor at the NIP, is a theoretical physicist specializing in condensed matter.

His paper Observation of a Continuous Time Crystal bagged the top award for this year’s NTSYS, a competition that aims to encourage young people to pursue a career in science.

Cosme said the paper “reports the first ever experimental observation of a new physical state of matter called continuous time crystals. Continuous time crystals exhibit emergent and spontaneous patterns in time, like how solids or like real crystals possess patterns in space.”

He added that the time crystals observed in the study are particularly interesting as it is, so far, the closest thing to Frank Wilczek’s original vision of a time crystal. Wilczek is an American theoretical physicist and a Nobel Prize in Physics awardee in 2004.

Established in 1976, the NAST-Philippines was created to recognize exemplary achievements in science and technology and to serve as a reservoir of competent scientific and technological manpower for the country. The NAST-Philippines also serves as the advisory body of the Philippine President on policies concerning science and technology in the country.