Three UP Diliman (UPD) faculty members and two artistic groups received the Philippine Live Entertainment, Arts, and Festival (LEAF) Awards at the Metropolitan Theater on Feb 8. Victor Emmanuel Carmelo “Vim” D. Nadera Jr., PhD, and Felipe M. de Leon Jr., PhD were recipients of the Golden LEAF Presidential Award, while Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz was given the Gintong Dahon (Iconic) Award. Dulaang UP’s The Reconciliation Dinner won as outstanding play and UP Dulaang Laboratoryo’s Nawawalang Gabi, Ninakaw na Araw earned the outstanding one-act play award.

The UP Diliman (UPD) Institute of Biology (IB) turned 38 this year, and the institute celebrated with a program honoring its alumni on Feb. 12 at the IB auditorium. IB Director Ian Kendrich Fontanilla, in his welcome remarks, said the IB dedicated the event, with the theme Pagpupugay sa Tagumpay ng IB Alumni, to their alumni because they were pivotal in realizing the institute’s numerous endeavors. IB anniversary celebration attendees. Photo by Jefferson Villacruz, UPDIO “Noong nakaraang pandemic, and even…

The UP Diliman School of Labor and Industrial Relations’ (SOLAIR) inauguration of its West Wing Building on Feb. 8 was well-attended by University officials, led by no less than UP President Angelo A. Jimenez. The 5-story structure with roof deck has a total floor area of 1,986.35 sq. m. West Wing Building’s first and second floors serve as faculty rooms, the third and fourth floors as classrooms and offices of SOLAIR’s three centers, and the entire fifth floor as mini hall for training and seminars.

The UP Diliman (UPD) community lost another treasured member. Olivia Del Castillo Caoili, PhD, a former professor at the Department of Political Science (DPolSci) passed away on Feb. 9. Caoili. Photo from Caoili’s Facebook account Caoili started as a research assistant at the then-UP College of Public Administration (now UPD National College of Public Administration and Governance / NCPAG) from January 1962 to July 1963. She left UP to study abroad and later worked in other Philippine universities.

Arran Stibbe, PhD, said the Philippines should protect its language diversity and its many traditional and indigenous cultures. An ecolinguist and a professor in ecological linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire, UK, Stibbe said the country’s languages and cultures contain ecological wisdom. Stibbe. Photo from Stibbe’s Facebook account In the study Traditional Ecological Knowledge Versus Ecological Wisdom: Are They Dissimilar in Cultural Landscape Research?…

UP Diliman (UPD), the Provincial Government of Batanes (PGB), and the Batanes State College (BSC) inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Jan. 30 at the BSC Amphitheater. This was another milestone in UPDs’ partnership with the island province since Batanes was chosen as a member of the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO) of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on 16 June 2023 (See https://upd.edu.ph/upds-batanes-tourism-and-hospitality-monitoring-center for related story).   (From…

Over 120 ongoing and completed research projects providing solutions to nine of the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) were featured in the 2023 edition of the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Engineering’s (COE) annual Professorial Chair Awards (PCA) colloquium. The 2023 UPD Faculty Manual defines a professorial chair as “a form of recognition for achievement in the academe, established to advance knowledge and learning in various fields or disciplines. Chairs are positions supported by special endowments and awarded to members of the faculty at the tertiary level who have distinguished themselves in…

It was a reunion of sorts as long-time friends and family gathered on Jan. 26 at the launch of Observing the Filipino Family: A Filipino Sociologist at Work , the latest book of Belen Tan-Gatue Medina, PhD at the Palma Hall lobby. Book cover. Image from the UP Press Facebook page The audience turnout was quite impressive as two UP presidents, some UP professors emeriti, and past and present University officials were in attendance, apart from the distinguished…

UP Diliman (UPD) and the Department of Science and Technology Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) recently signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU aims for both parties to collaboratively develop activities that would see “exchange of academic information and materials, collaborative research activities, adjunct professorships, lectures and symposia, and student internships.” (Standing, from left) Serrano, De Guzman, De Leon, Co, Tria, Cayaban, Syjuco, and Castañeda; (seated, from left) Tanchuling, Vistan, De Leon,…

The UP Film Institute (UPFI) of the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Mass Communication now has an online database of UPFI students’ audiovisual (AV) theses. A collaborative project of the UPFI Research and Film Archives, the UPFI Student Thesis AV Collection Database (AV Database) provides users with remote access to UPFI students’ theses that were produced as early as 1990 and had been digitized by the UPFI Film Archives and Library. UPFI Audiovisual Collection…