(MAY 12)—Like most UP Diliman units, the UP School of Statistics (STAT) has projects addressing the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. Foremost is the Schools’ involvement in the UP Resilience Institute and the UP System’s UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team. Outbreak threshold statistics. Prof. Peter Julian Cayton, PhD and instructor Jan Gil Sarmiento provided relevant monitoring statistics on the pandemic for the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team’s outbreak threshold methodology.  Using the number of active cases and the estimated threshold of an outbreak, they designed a recommendation rubric for the appropriate quarantine policy for a specific provincial or local government unit. The…

(MAY 11)—The use of micro-satellites like Diwata-1 to measure cloud-top height is more cost-effective than regular satellites, a team of scientists said. The team is composed of professors from UP Diliman (UPD) and Hokkaido University (Hokudai) who authored the study “Determination of Cloud-top Height through Three-dimensional Cloud Reconstruction using DIWATA-1 Data,” published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports. Scientists Elison Castro, Tetsuro Ishida, Yukihiro Takahashi, Hisayuki Kubota, Gay Jane Perez and Philippine Space Agency Director General Joel S. Marciano Jr., were able to construct…

(MAY 9)—The UP Diliman Executive Committee today issued a statement calling the shutdown of ABS-CBN “a disservice to the Filipino people.” In the statement, the ExeCom emphasized that for the truth to stand above mendacity, there should be an “arena for contending views to debate.” It also said that the conditions for academic excellence are the same for media integrity. “They require conditions of openness and respect for diversity. This means that the freedom to question, to think, to write, and to speak should be safeguarded for all,…

(MAY 8) — Five UP professors will talk about the status of creating art in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic through the online forum “UP Diliman Kanlungan Talk Series”(UPDKTS), today May 8, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Organized by the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) and will be launched via Facebook Live, the pilot episode will have Professors Josefina F. Estrella (College of Arts and Letters/CAL), Patrick D. Flores, PhD (CAL), Toym Imao (College of Fine Arts), Josefino “Chino” Toledo (College of Music) and Rolando B….

(MAY 8) — Father of Philippine email Roberto “Obet” Verzola passed away on May 6 due to a lingering illness. He was 67. An electrical engineer, Verzola was a former lecturer at the UP Diliman Institute of Mathematics (2009-2017). In 1992, he set up email and internet connections for non-government organizations in the Philippines like the Philippine Greens, where he served as Secretary-General, Tanggol Kalikasan, Center for Renewable Energy, Sustainable Technologies, and Systems for Rice Technologies. Verzola is known for his detailed analysis of the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections, both of…

(MAY 1) — Professors Ma. Crisanta N. Flores, PhD and Priscelina P. Legasto, PhD were among the 11 recipients of the “2020 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas” (Gawad Balagtas). Launched in 1988, Gawad Balagtas is a lifetime achievement award given to Filipino writers by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL), the country’s largest organization of Filipino writers. This year, the 11 Gawad Balagtas awardees were Fray Paolo Diosdado Casurao (Play in Waray), Flores (Literary Criticism in Filipino) Eric Gamalinda (Poetry and Fiction in English), Marra PL. Lanot (Poetry and Essay in English), Legasto (Literary Criticism in English), Glenn…

Today, May 1, the government modifies the restrictions it has imposed over the last eight weeks as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic: drastic restrictions will be eased in areas under General Community Quarantine. High risk areas under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) will know their fate on May 15. As the nation looks forward to a post-pandemic scenario, UP Diliman (UPD) is easing the transition to post-ECQ. #KapitDiliman is now #TatagUP: Tugon ng UP Diliman sa Hamon ng COVID-19 (https://upd.edu.ph/tatagup/). The change in the portal’s name reflects UPD’s new and forward-looking…

(MAY 1)—It is a time of transformation for the UP School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), from the move to a new home, to having a new dean in Prof. Mary Grace Golfo-Barcelona and now their “Journal of Philippine Librarianship” (JPL) has been renamed to the “Philippine Journal of Librarianship and Information Studies” (PhJLIS). In her editorial, PhJLIS editor-in-chief Prof. Iyra S. Buenrostro stated the journal’s 39th volume “opens a new chapter for the country’s longest-running refereed LIS journal.” Along with a new name, the journal that has been…

(MAY 1) — Former UP School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) associate professor Cynthia Dioniso-Turingan passed away on Apr. 29 due to natural causes.  She was 81. Dionisio-Turingan served at the then Institute of Environmental Planning (IEP) as a research assistant, researcher and instructor, before joining SURP in 1967 as Assistant Professor and eventually became Associate Professor. Among Dionisio-Turingan’s expertise were regional development planning, social and environmental impact analysis, land use planning, regional growth and resettlement evaluation. In 1970, Dionisio-Turingan pursued a diploma program in Comprehensive Regional Planning at the Settlement Study…

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