(FEB. 26)—Maya-2, the second cube satellite (cubesat) designed and developed by Filipino scholars has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) following a successful launch earlier this week. The ISS received Cygnus NG-15 (S.S. Katherine Johnson)—the rocket carrying Maya-2—on Feb. 22, 5:38 p.m. Philippine Time (PHT). Cygnus NG-15 was launched on Feb. 21 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Wallpos Island flight facility in Virginia, USA. From there, the 1.3-kg cube-shaped Maya-2 will be released into orbit and will travel around the earth daily, primarily taking pictures/images of the earth…

Educator. Writer. Researcher. Administrator. Prof. Jose Wendell P. Capili, PhD was recently named recipient of the NRCP Achievement Awards 2020 in the field of Humanities by the Department of Science and Technology – National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP). He has published seven books and over 300 articles in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. His first book “A Madness of Birds” (poetry, UP Press, 1998) was highly regarded in the world of literature and academe.  Filipino critic Tito Quiling Jr. said, “Splattered across its pages are colors such as cerulean or auburns,…

(JAN. 12)—Have you heard of AADO? It’s a new office in UP Diliman (UPD). It stands for Academic Assessment and Development Office. And, they’re in need of office staff! The AADO was created with the approval of the UP Board of Regents (BOR) at its 1352nd meeting on Jul. 30, 2020.  And it is mandated to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the University’s AADS (Academic Assessment and Development System) and strengthen UPD’s quality assurance (QA) measures. The AADS is defined at the…

(DEC. 9)—Prof. Cynthia P. Saloma, PhD of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) and Prof. Rachel June R. Gotanco, PhD of The Marine Science Institute (The MSI) were among this year’s recipients of the Department of Science and Technology – National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) Awards on Nov. 23, held via virtual ceremonies. The NSTW Awards recognizes the contribution of science and technology to the country’s development and is meant to draw support from public and private institutions for its sustainable development. The Executive Director…

Prof. Michael L. Tan, DVM, PhD Professor Emeritus in Anthropology Dr. Michael L. Tan says bio introductions shouldn’t be all titles and degrees.  He wants to be remembered as being the product of great parents, Julio Divino Tan and Apolonia Nieves Calderon Lim, proud Chinese-Filipinos or Tsinoy who were teachers themselves initially and therefore skeptical about the teaching profession but “tolerated” his entry into the academe, eventually learning to take pride that they had an educator son. He started his own family late in life, and is now raising (and being raised by)…

(JUL.14)—Eight faculty members are now at the helm of the executive offices under the Office of the Chancellor. Ma. Theresa T. Payongayong, PhD, is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Adeline A. Pacia for Administration; Gonzalo A. Campoamor II, PhD for Research and Development; Louise Jashil R. Sonido for Student Affairs; Aleli B. Bawagan, PhD for Community Affairs and Raquel B. Florendo, PhD for Planning and Development. Meanwhile, Prof. Maria Vanessa Lusung-Oyzon, PhD and Prof. Sir Anril P. Tiatco, PhD are University Registrar and Diliman Information Office Director, respectively. Academic Affairs.  Payongayong’s appointment…

(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 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…

Dear Members of the UP Diliman Community,   The novel coronavirus has given me an unusual welcome at the start of my term as Chancellor. Within a week, I had to form the UPD COVID-19 Task Force, composed of the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, University Health Service personnel, students, staff and faculty from the different disciplines to plan and carry out our university’s community response to the pandemic. The Task Force has been monitoring the COVID-19 situation in Diliman, coordinating with the LGU (local government unit) and barangay health officials, attending to the needs of residents, students and other personnel stranded in the…