UP professors win NRCP Achievement Award
TWO professors from the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) received the Achievement Award from the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) during the Annual Scientific Conference and 91st General Membership Assembly.
Dr. Cristine Villagonzalo of the UPD-CS National Institute of Physics (NIP) was lauded for her contributions to Physics, while Dr. Reynaldo Garcia of the UPD-CS National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) was cited for his contributions to Medical Sciences.
Villagonzalo served as president of the NRCP governing board from 2022 to 2023. She is a professor, the deputy director for NIP’s academic affairs, and the project leader of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development Philippines. She received her doctorate in natural sciences at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. She is working on a research project to integrate a quantum mechanics principle called the perturbation theory in a quantum circuit.
Garcia founded the Disease Molecular Biology and Epigenetics Laboratory at NIMBB in 2011. He and his team played a crucial role in detecting and preventing the spread of Covid-19 during the pandemic. He received his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Australian National University and is currently a professor at NIMBB. He is investigating how specific mutations in colon cancer cells affect their resistance to treatments and how these mutated cells divide, migrate and survive.
The NRCP started awarding the Achievement Award in 1979 to those who have significantly contributed to the research and development of natural sciences, health sciences, engineering, industry, social sciences and humanities in the Philippines.
Aside from Villagonzalo and Garcia, three professors from UP Los Baños also received the Achievement Awards held on March 12, 2024: Dr. Inocencio Buot Jr. for his contributions to Biological Sciences, Dr. Maria Ana Quimbo for Social Sciences and Dr. Remil Galay for Veterinary Medicine.
The UPD Department of Chemical Engineering was awarded the 2023 NRCP Outstanding Institution Award. It joins the UPD-CS institutes that have received the award, namely NIP, Marine Science Institute, and Natural Sciences Research Institute DNA Analysis Laboratory.
Visit https://science.upd.edu.ph/ for more information.