Ateneo Physics Faculty Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr attends the 2015 UN/Japan Workshop on Space Weather

Participants in the 2015 UN/Japan Workshop on Space Weather held at Luigans Hotel, Fukuoka City, Japan. (Photo by ICSWSE posted in Twitter)

Last 2-6 March 2015, Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr, Assistant Professor of the Department of Physics, attended the United Nations/Japan Worshop on Space Weather in Fukuoka, Japan. This 5-day workshop at Luigans Hotel in Fukuoka is about Science and Data Products from ISWI instruments. ISWI is the International Space Weather Initiative, which was part of the 2010-2012 workplan of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). ISWI is a collaboration of different instrument arrays for the understanding of the impact of solar activity on Earth. One of these instrument networks is the MAGDAS (Magnetic Data Acquisition System) network, which consists of 72 magnetometers worldwide, with 6 of them in the Philippines (TGG, LGZ, MUT, CEB, CDO, and DAV). In 2012, ISWI led to the creation of ICSWSE (International Center for Space Weather Science and Education) in Kyushu University. The ICSWSE subcenter is at the Ionosphere Research Building of Manila Observatory. As the program head of Manila Observatory’s (UAD) Upper Atmosphere Dynamics program, Dr. Sugon also coordinates the activities of the ICSWSE subcenter and those of the other MAGDAS stations in the Philippines.

Below is an interview with Dr. Sugon by Ateneo Physics News:

The research team of Upper Atmosphere Dynamics program of Manila Observatory: Clint Bennett, Christine Chan, and Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr.

1. How long have you been attending ISWI-related activities?

In 2010 I attended the 1^st ISWI Workshop in Helwan University, Egypt. In 2012, I attended the MAGDAS/ISWI School on Space Weather in Bandung, Indonesia, together with my co-faculty, Mr. Clint Bennett. This 2015, Clint Bennett and Fr. Daniel J. McNamara were also both invited to join the UN/Japan Space Weather workshop in Fukuoka, Japan, but Fr. Dan has a visa problem while Clint got sick a few days before his flight to Japan. So I left for Japan alone.

My attendance to the ISWI workshops was made possible because of our collaboration with ICSWSE. In 2008, Prof. Kiyohumi Yumoto of SERC (former name of ICSWSE) and Executive Director Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga of MO (Manila Observatory) signed a Memorandum of Agreement which led to the establishment of MO’s Ionosphere Research Building as the SERC subcenter (now ICSWSE Subcenter). In all three workshops, ICSWSE funded my trips.

Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr. presenting his poster on Equatorial Electrojet measurements in the Philippines

2. Did you present a research at the workshop?

I presented a poster on the measurement of the height, strength, and length of equatorial electrojet (EEJ) currents in the ionosphere using MAGDAS magnetometer data. These currents produce a magnetic field around them which can be measured on the ground, and from these measurements we can deduce the the properties of these electrojets, after filtering out the background geomagnetic field. The theoretical framework is simply Biot-Savart law, which is taught sophomore physics and engineering majors, e.g. Young and Freedman’s University Physics. What is new maybe is our assumption that the jets are not infinitely long linear currents as assumed by Chapman, but only of finite length, as shown, for example, in magnetohydrodynamic simulations illustrated in the Wikipedia article on the EEJ.

These equatorial electrojets were already measured by Jesuit Fathers in Manila Observatory in their magnetometer stations in Manila and Antipolo more than 100 years ago. The Jesuits produced tables of magnetometer values in H (horizontal), D (declination), and Z (vertical) every hour of the day. So my presentation in the UN/Japan workshop is a continuation of this long Jesuit tradition in space weather research at Manila Observatory.

My research team at Manila Observatory consists of my co-faculty Clint Bennett and Research Assistant, Christine Chan. Clint made the first measurements of the equatorial electrojet current height, strength, and length by analyzing MAGDAS CEB data using Matlab. We presented the results of his work in a poster at the AOGS (Asia Oceania Geosciences Society) conference in Sapporo, Japan last 2014. Christine continued Clint’s work, but this time she coded in Python and added two more stations: CDO and LGZ. The results are still the same: the electrojet is about 1,000 km from the ground at the dip equator near Davao (where the vertical component of the geomagnetic field is nearly zero), with strengths of about 1 Ampere, and lengths of about 1,500 km. These jets follow a diurnal variation, which peaks at around 1 pm local time.

Our results of 1,000 km electrojet height is troubling, because the accepted values in the literature is only about 100 km. Perhaps, there is something different about the Philippine electrojets which is responsible for the 1,000 km heights. Perhaps, we have not yet considered the curvature of the earth. The analytical computation of the magnetic field of a finite circular current arc was already done before by another author, but the integrals are a bit tough. Perhaps we have not yet considered the magnetic field produced by the ground induced currents (GIC), which are currents produced by the changing magnetic field produced by the electrojets, as described by Faraday’s Law. Perhaps, some electromagnetic shielding happens in the lower ionosphere, which distorts the magnetic field produced by the electrojet currents. Perhaps, the electrojets are not infinitesimal but have spatially varying finite widths and heights. We’ll consider these possibilities one by one in order to gain a better picture of the motion of the equatorial electrojets.

Equatorial Electrojet (EEJ). Source: Wikipedia.

 3. Why should we care about equatorial electrojets and space weather?

Equatorial electrojets are similar to the auroral electrojets: in both cases the currents move in circles perpendicular to the geomagnetic field and they occur daily due to the rotation of the earth and the difference in ion production between the earth’s day and night sides. The auroral electrojets are not the same as the dazzling auroras at the polar countries, which only happen during geomagnetic storms.  But electrojets and auroras are similar in that they are due to the motion of electrical charges.

On a more serious note, geomagnetic storms are becoming more dangerous the more we rely on satellite-based global navigation systems such as GPS for cars and airplanes. As you perhaps know, position information is determined using the sending and arrival times of signals from at least 4 GPS satellites. Signals which take a long time to reach you are farther than those which took a shorter time to reach you. Multiply the time difference between the time the signal left the satellite and the time it reached the receiver by the speed of light (about 3×10^8 m/s) and you get the satellite-to-receiver distance in kilometers. If you only have one satellite, you only know that you are within a particular spherical radius from a satellite. If you have two satellites, you know your position lies somewhere in circle which is the intersection of the two spheres of possible distances. If you have three satellites, you know that your position is one of two possible points (intersection of thre spheres of possible distances). If you have four satellites, you can be finally sure where you are, and this is how the GPS works.

Now, if there is a geomagnetic storm, the earth’s magnetic field becomes disturbed, which in turn disturbs the ionosphere. Since the ionosphere lies between you and the GPS satellites, the satellite signals would be severely affected. Remember that satellite signals are electromagnetic waves and the ionosphere consists of charges which are affected by electric and magnetic fields. When the satellite signal passes through the ionosphere, its path becomes reflected or refracted (bent) in the same way as when you shine a flash light in a glass plate, but with different colors or frequencies affected more than others. It is possible to remove the effects of the ionosphere by using the travel time of two different frequencies sent by satellites at the L1 and L2 bands (their wavelengths are the length and width of your iPad!). But this removal of ionospheric effects is only possible if we make certain assumptions about the ionosphere, e.g. horizontally stratified and static. So during geomagnetic storms which can last for several hours, these assumptions about the ionosphere fail and no algorithm can help us deduce our position from the GPS satellites. Filipino sailors may not really worry about this, since they were trained to determine their latitude and longitude positions from the positions of the sun and stars. But sailors and pilots who rely exclusively on GPS would be at loss. This is particularly true in the polar region: during geomagnetic storms, pilots are advised to avoid the poles and take alternative routes. Airplanes which got lost during geomagnetic storms may find themselves straying in hostile territory and may get shot down by missiles for being mistaken as fighter jets or spy planes.

Prof. Akimasa Yoshikawa and Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr. Prof. Yoshika is the Principal Investigator of the MAGDAS Project of ICSWSE, Kyushu University, Japan.

4. Is there a relationship between geomagnetic storms and ordinary storms such as typhoons or cyclones?

At present there is no known direct relationship between geomagnetic storms and ordinary storms. So the relationship between the two storms is is only by mathematical analogy.

If you are on the ground and a typhoon passes by, you only know how strong is the wind and how the air pressure drops. But if you have an array of about stations measuring wind speed, wind direction, and air pressure, together with a mathematical model of a typhoon, you can determine where the eye of the storm is, plot its course, and warn the citizens of the impending danger, as what Fr. Federico Faura, SJ of Manila Observatory have done more than a hundred years ago.

Similarly, if you are on the ground and a geomagnetic storm happens, all you see is are large oscillations in your magnetic data, and you can’t be sure whether these oscillations are due to geomagnetic storms or to electric trains, as what happened in the 1900’s when Manila Observatory in Manila was forced to relocate its magnetic station to Antipolo because the newly installed electric trains were disturbing the magnetic measurements.  If you have several magnetic stations in the whole Philippines as what we have now, you can isolate local effects, such as from electric trains, from geomagnetic storms. But to find the eye of the of the geomagnetic storm so to speak, you have to look far into space into the sun.

Right now, there are two STEREO satellites orbiting around the sun, which allows us to see the 3D structure of the sun in the same way as our two eyes allow us to gauge distances of objects using triangulation. In the sun are sunspots, which look like small dots from our vantage point, but some of them may be the size of the earth.  Actually, you can think of sunspots as typhoons or cyclones in the sun; the only difference is that instead of air currents and gravitational field, you have charged particles (plasma) under both the sun’s gravitational and magnetic fields.

Sometimes, the sun erupts like a volcano and vomits blobs of plasma into space called Coronal Mass Ejections.  These blobs of plasma have magnetic field locked into them.  How these plasma affects the earth depends on the direction of the plasma’s magnetic field, which is also known as the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF).  Since the earth’s magnetic field is pointing from Geographic South to Geographic North (Northward), then the earth’s magnetic field would be affected by a Southward magnetic field of the plasma.  The earth’s magnetic field ripples due to the shock and the magnetotail reconnects. Then a part of the magnetic field flies out into space resulting to the injection of charges in the magnetosphere and the formation of auroras.

5. Are there signals no. 1, 2, and 3 for geomagnetic storms in the same way as what we have for typhoons?

Geomagnetic storms can be measured in a scale.  One way is to define the storm in terms of the fluctuations of the geomagnetic field, e.g. Bartel’s K-index.  Depending on the location of the magnetic station, the fluctuations can differ, so some kind of calibration is used in order to compare the values of different stations.  But if we are more interested on the effects of the geomagnetic storm, NOAA proposed another scale called the G-scale.  Here are the two extremes:

G1. Minor. Power systems: Weak power grid fluctuations can occur. Spacecraft operations: Minor impact on satellite operations possible. Other systems: Migratory animals are affected at this and higher levels; aurora is commonly visible at high latitudes (northern Michigan and Maine).

G5. Power systems: Widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur, some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage. Spacecraft operations: May experience extensive surface charging, problems with orientation, uplink/downlink and tracking satellites. Other systems: Pipeline currents can reach hundreds of amps, HF (high frequency) radio propagation may be impossible in many areas for one to two days, satellite navigation may be degraded for days, low-frequency radio navigation can be out for hours, and aurora has been seen as low as Florida and southern Texas (typically 40° geomagnetic lat.).

Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr with the staff of ICSWSE, Kyushu University, Japan: Dr. Akiko Fujimoto (left) and Dr. Grace Cardinal Rolusta (center). Dr. Rolusta used to work at the Manila Observatory under Fr. Sergio Su, SJ’s Solid Earth Dynamics program.

6. Can Philippine electrical power grids be affected by geomagnetic storms?

There is no study yet for the Philippines.  But here’s is what happened to Quebec during the March 9, 1989 geomagnetic storm (Wikipedia):

The variations in the earth’s magnetic field also tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec’s power grid. The utility’s very long transmission lines and the fact that most of Quebec sits on a large rock shield prevented current flowing through the earth, finding a less resistant path along the 735 kV power lines.^[8]

The James Bay network went offline in less than 90 seconds, giving Quebec its second massive blackout in 11 months.^[9] The power failure lasted nine hours and forced the company to implement various mitigation strategies, including raising the trip level, installing series compensation on ultra high voltage lines and upgrading various monitoring and operational procedures. Other utilities in North America and Northern Europe and elsewhere implemented programs to reduce the risks associated with geomagnetically induced currents.^[8]

One way to determine if geomagnetic storms affect the Philippine power grid is to list all the occurrences of power failures, e.g. transformer breakdowns, their dates, times, and locations for an 11-year period, which corresponds to one solar cycle.  Then we make another list of geomagnetic storms according to NOAA G-scale for this period. If we see that many power failures come within a day or two of the occurrence of the geomagnetic storm, then geomagnetic storms may indeed cause many of these power failures.

A tour of the Marine World near Luigans Hotel, Fukuoka City, Japan.

7. Did you visit other places in Fukuoka?

I was not able to join the tour around the city.  But near Luigans hotel is the Marine World. In this building is an amphitheater for the dolphin show. You see a pool below where the dolphins jump up and down on the water, sometimes they soar in pairs to great heights in order to reach a red ball in the ceiling, and then they fall back with a splash on the pool.  Across the pool is the sea, which stretches far into the horizon, and to the sky.

The Marine world is like a labyrinth glass tunnel inside a giant aquarium. It is fascinating to see fishes and other sea creatures in their near-natural habitat. I see the octopus, the shark, the turtle, and many small, brightly colored fishes. So this must be what it is to live like Aquaman in the great city Atlantis, with all these sea creatures at your call. Or perhaps like Captain Nemo in his submarine 20,000 leagues under the sea. Or perhaps like the Little Mermaid. And like the Little Mermaid, I feel in my heart that I do not really belong here, for a much more beautiful world is not down here but up there, and to live is to walk on land, breathe the air, and be with the love of your life. Perhaps, the whole universe is just one giant aquarium after and we do not really belong here. And someone who loves us awaits us far beyond the clouds, far beyond the sun, far beyond the stars.

Prof. Kiyohumi Yumoto gives a speech while Prof. Akimasa Yoshikawa and Ms. Kayo Goto helps him in the podium.

8. What was your most memorable moment at the conference?

During the last day and hour of the conference, Prof. Kiyohumi Yumoto came to the podium with halting steps, accompanied by members of the ICSWSE: Prof. Akimasa Yoshikawa, Engr. George Maeda, and Ms. Kayo Goto. His fingers were shaking as he held before him a piece of paper containing a few sentences:

“I am sorry. I had a stroke. I can’t remember many things. I would like to thank my wife for taking care of me.”

He repeated his speech thrice. Then everyone stood and clapped their hands for a long, long time. Here is a man who installed his first flux gate magnetometer system in 1990, which has grown in 2015 into a world wide network of more than 72 magnetometers and 3 FMCW radars, with 6 of these magnetometers stationed in the Philippines and one of these FMCW radars hosted in Manila Observatory. Here is a man who used to stride the world like a Colossus, meeting scientists from different continents to seek partners and collaborators, and inspire the next generation of students to pursue big science. And here he is now on a wheelchair, with much of his past memories he can barely retrieve from his brain.  But we love him, because we remember.

Indeed, science, for all its abstractions and mathematical formulas,  is still a human endeavor. A man can do only so much as a scientist, but in the end it is relationships that really matter.

Entrance of Hotel Luigans, Fukuoka City, Japan. Photo by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Facade of Hotel Luigans facing the sea in Fukuoka City, Japan. Photo by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Eulogy for Fr. Victor Badillo, SJ by Ateneo Physics Department chair Dr. James Simpas

Dr. James Bernard Simpas giving a eulogy for Fr. Victor Badillo, SJ at the Oratory of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University (See more pictures at Manila Observatory’s FB page.)

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

by Dr. Bernard James Simpas
Head, Instrumentation and Technology Development Program/ Urban Air Quality Program, Manila Observatory
Chair, Department of Physics, Ateneo de Manila University

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I do not think I am the best person to speak about Fr. Vic for the Manila Observatory—but in the spirit of obedience, I will attempt to do so. I would also like to take this opportunity then to speak on behalf of the Physics Department, as well.

I think it may be appropriate to speak about Fr. Vic from the experiences of the persons he worked in the Observatory. I have Genie Lorenzo (RA of ITD) and Pope Sugon (present head of UAD) to thank for gathering the thoughts of many whom I will try to incorporate in this sharing. As a framework for this, allow me to use a guideline from a contemporary of Fr. Vic, Mr. Onofre Pagsanghan—“a something to do, a someone to love, and a tomorrow”.

Dr. Celine Vicente, Director Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, and Atty Gia Ibay

A. A something to do

Fr. Vic related to some of us before that he found his calling as a Jesuit by chance—through his exposure to his Jesuit teachers in the post-second-world-war Ateneo (including the “Ateneo de Guipit”, that Mr. Pagsi also remembers fondly—the Nazareth school that the Hijas de Jesus sisters offered as a temporary venue after the “Ateneo de Padre Faura” was totally ruined). He was especially attracted to the value that the Jesuits put on education—and on educating one’s self as a manner of worshiping God.

Fr. Vic was assigned to the Manila Observatory after ordination—doing Solar Radio Research and eventually Ionosphere Research, as well. This is was his first manifestation to me as a child—when I would visit the Observatory because of Fr. Su and Fr. Heyden (who I got to know early on because of their regular Masses at our parish church, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, in Project 4). So dedicated was he to his work that even when he was already confined to the Infirmary of the JR, Genie Lorenzo relates, “he remembered where all his things in the Ionosphere Building were and would ask us to get them for him whenever he needed them”. Dina Sayson (property manager of the MO) shares the same: “He would call me and ask me to deliver any book , things or files he need and fully remembers where I will get them in his office.”

Mang Franklin (assistant of Fr. Vic for 20 years for his Solar Radio research) shared that on the morning of Fr. Vic’s passing (4 AM) he dreamt of being in the Radio building. He was operating one of the instruments that was logging data on tape and the tape run out. He then noticed the double doors of the building were swinging open Then he realized it was Fr. Badillo, so he asked him if he had any more tape for the instrument. Fr. Badillo replied to say that he didn´t have any more left. A few hours after Fr. Badillo breathed his last in the hospital.

He also took upon himself the valuable task of being the Archivist of the Observatory—and his assiduous work has allowed us to appreciate the persons and work of the Observatory that has not yet been published in the scientific and popular literature. Interestingly, as Nen Roberto relates, somehow he never wanted to come up with his own CV, hence MO does not have this. Being the MO archivist he wrote and compiled information about other Jesuit scientists, but he never did that for himself or even allowed others to do that for him.

1. Teaching at the Ateneo de Manila Physics Department

Fr. Vic was part of the first faculty of the Physics Department when it transitioned from being a service program into a full-blown department offering BS Physics and in MS Physics.

He was my professor in Quantum Mechanics and I still remember his exclamations of “wonderful!” whenever we would successfully (or semi-successfully) solve a problem on the board. I don’t think I have ever had a Physics professor who approached his subject with as much joy as Fr. Vic did his.

Also by chance was his avocation—he considered himself “an amateur astronomer”—as he was thrust into the Presidency of the Philippine Astronomical Society (PAS) after the founding president, Philip Wyman (who, incidentally, invited Fr. Vic to join the PAS), left for the US in 1973. He would hold this leadership position in the oldest astronomical organization in the country for the next 20 years. This was his third manifestation to me—during my college and young faculty years—I first got to see Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn using his prized reflecting telescope. Many of those present here tonight probably had their first practical astronomy under Fr. Vic.

2. Infirmary blog – Pedro Calungsod

The last phase of Fr. Vic’s life was spent at the infirmary of the JR. But that did not stop him from finding something to do despite his physical disability.

John Ong shares: I got included in Fr. Badillo’s “blogger’s list” where he would send emails of hope and inspiration.  But it wasn’t only that his emails were stories about hope, love, justice, encouragement, and inspiration, he himself was an inspiration.  He was bedridden at the JR infirmary but used every opportunity (in this case, the internet) and strength he had to reach out to others and proclaim the gospel of love.

Ms. Thelma Selga and Ms. Nen Roberto

B. A someone to love

In all the great (and small) tasks he took upon during his lifetime, what people remember is how he manifested his love for Christ—through his love and respect, cura personalis if you will, for those who he would encounter.

Let me just relay some quotes verbatim:

Nen Roberto remembers:

“Fr. Badillo´s caring kindness, and his compassion for the poor, his discipline, a Jesuit with a listening ear that accepts whatever you presented him.”

Dina Sayson remembers:

“When Fr. Francis Heyden, S.J. died in 1991, Fr. Badillo became our immediate supervisor in the Solar Optics Bldg. The computers has just been introduced to us, so from manual measuring of the sunspots , and solar activities like flares and prominences, Fr. Badillo together with Fr. Marasigan, studied on how these measurements can be computerized. Fr. Badillo has been very diligent and patient in teaching us how to cope with the computerization process.”

From Zeny Vinoya:

Sa east avenue medical center nawalan ng hininga ang tatay ko, sa tamang pagkakataon naimbitahan ko po si fr vic ng araw na iyon para sana makapag kumpisal si tatay. Bagama’t huli na ng siya ay dumating, dinasalan at binasbasan pa din niya ng holy water. Laking gulat namin ng biglang gumalaw ang kamay ng tatay ko at nabuhay pa po siya ng apat na buwan.

Sabi pa niya … Kung lahat ng tao ay magmamahal lamang sa iba katulad ng pagmamahal nila sa kanilang sarili…ang mundo ay mapupuno ng pag ibig.

Genie Lorenzo:

Several times in the last 2 years or so, I have gone to him unannounced, and cried my heart out. And he just sat there in silence, with a comforting look. His prayers must be strong as I always felt relieved after each visit with him.

Almost three years ago today (24 October 2011), Pope Sugon shared his interview with Fr. Vic on the vocation stories of different Jesuits. Fr. Vic had this to say about himself: “I entered the novitiate to do my part about the shortage of priests in the Philippines. I thought I was doing the church a favor, to do a job that needed doing, that I was doing something noble. I did not know Jesus was seducing me to loving him.”

Mr. Broderick Sapnu and Ms. Carina Sarmaniego

C. A tomorrow

Many of us will never get to be immortalized (literally) in the stars like Fr. Vic—with a Main Belt asteroid 4866 Badillo (1988 VB3, discovered on November 10, 1988 by T. Kojima at Chiyoda).

But maybe more importantly, Fr. Vic is immortalized in the hearts of many whose careers have spun off from working with him (and not only in astronomy and the Observatory staff).

Carina Samaniego, now Director of the AdMU Archives, took over the task of MO archivist from Fr. Vic. She says:

“Even after I left MO, he would send materials to the Ateneo Archives and email me his inquiries and requests. I can always feel his delight from the replies that I send him, even if it only through email. His messages and replies made me feel how valuable this work that I choose to practice.

For us working in the Observatory, we will miss you as we celebrate our 150^th anniversary next year. Nevertheless, we hope that as we remember youyou’re your service to MO, we will always remember the kind flavor of your loving commitment to your work—and try to emulate your example.

Fr. Vic has been part of the tomorrows of all of us present here today to pay him our respect. And his goodness lives on in the goodness that (I hope) we will do with our lives that have been touched by his.

Thank you Fr. Vic and as we commit you to the loving arms of Our Mother, Stella Maris, we know that you now are gifted with knowledge of the mysteries of our universe that you pondered and observed throughout your life. Thank you for taking us along for this wonderful ride and till we meet again!

Picture of Fr. Victor Badillo at the Manila Observatory Lobby

Dr. Erees Queen Macabebe of ECCE Department to do solar cell research in Italy funded by Erasmus Mundus

by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Dr. Erees Queen Macabebe of ECCE Department

Time flies fast. Six years ago in 2005, Reese and I played table tennis with other faculty members in the Ateneo Dorm playing area near the Cervini Cafeteria.  On that night, she said goodbye to each one of us.  She was leaving for South Africa then for her Ph.D. in Physics at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

Fast forward to 2009.  I met Reese again at Manang’s Club House in a table facing the tennis court.  She had finished her Ph.D. in Physics.  Her field is in photovoltaics or solar cells.  She uses an algorithm based on swarm intelligence of bees and fishes to characterize the performance of solar cells.  Her work earned her a distinction of being one of the finalist in the Solar World Junior Einstein Award.  Upon her return to Ateneo de Manila University, she joined the ECCE department and led the photovoltaic research group.

Reese finished at the  Philippine Science High School (1998) in Western Visayas.  She was awarded a DOST scholarship to study in Ateneo de Manila University.  She worked in the Vacuum Coating Laboratory under the mentorship of Mr. Ivan Culaba.  Her thesis is on anti-reflection coatings using thin films.  She finished BS Physics in 2002 and BS Computer Engineering in 2003.  Reese then taught at the physics department and finished her Master in Physics Education in 2005.  Upon the suggestion of Dr. Jerrold Garcia who was the Physics Department chair then, Reese looked for a Ph.D. program abroad and chose South Africa.

Now, Reese is saying goodbye again to us her friends.  She was accepted for an Erasmus Mundus grant, an excerpt of which reads:

In the framework of the European Programme ERASMUS MUNDUS Action 2 EMMA West, coordinated by Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis (France) with the partnership of Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy) and funded by the European Commission, Dr Macabebe, Erees Queen  will spend a period of study/research of 6 months at Università degli Studi di Padova -Department of Technical Physics from October 15th 2011. Her supervisor will be Prof Davide Del Col.

In her correspondence with Prof Del Col, Reese was informed that she will be working on characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells in collaboration with Prof Vito di Noto of the Department of Chemistry. She will leave for Italy on the 17th of October.

Reese has gone to many parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, circling the world with the sun, and for a time plants herself like a sunflower in foreign soil, unfolds her photovoltaic petals, and directs them to the sun till it passes over the horizon.

Farewell, Reese!  Best wishes!  And before you leave, let’s play table tennis.

Ateneo Physics Department launches the Ateneo Physics Archives: an interview with the Physics webmaster

A flowering plant that rarely flowers (scientific name?). It can be found on the road from Faura Hall on the way to the Science Education Complex.

Below is an interview of Ateneo Physics News with Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr., Chief Blogger and Multimedia Marketing Director of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Physics.

Question 1.  What exactly is the Ateneo Physics Archives?

The Ateneo Physics Archives is a blog for publishing abstracts of physics-related researches in Ateneo de Manila University from the foundation of Ateneo de Manila to the present.  The researches need not come from the Physics Department.  They can be from other the departments of the School of Science and Engineering: Biology, Chemistry, DISCS, ECCE, Environmental Science, Health Science, and Mathematics.  Physics is related to these fields in many ways.  For example, Biology uses electron microscopes which are based the wave properties of electrons.  Chemistry is also applied Quantum Mechanics.  Computer 3D animation requires the theory of Mechanics and Optics. Engineering is applied physics.  Climate change computations in Environmental Science are based on heat transfer through conduction, convection, and radiation.  Health science requires understanding of  electromagnetics of heart pumping and bone mechanical stresses.  And Mathematics is the language of physics from vector calculus to group theory to differential geometry.

The abstracts can also be from from Management, Economics, History, Philosophy, and Theology.  Newton’s laws of motion has been applied to Management.  Econometrics is a mathematical science which uses concepts in Hamiltonian Mechanics.  History of Science is a field by itself, and prominent among them is Pierre Duhem, a Catholic chemist.  Aristotle, who studied metaphysics in Philosophy, also wrote on physics–the concept of time and motion, and the theory of falling bodies.

Question 2.  Oh, why is Theology there?

Physics is the foundation of Theology.  St. Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, for example, is filled with many discussions in physics, such as on the nature of light–whether it is a body or not–a question which is still not fully answered today as we progressed from the luminiferous aether to Maxwell’s electromagnetic waves to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and to wave-packet collapse of the photon.  If we don’t understand the physics of light, how can we understand the Nicene Creed: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father”? By the way, Light of Light or Lumen de Lumine is the motto of Manila Observatory.

Question 3.  What is the benefit to other departments in posting their abstracts in Ateneo Physics Archives?

The question that each researcher in Ateneo should be asking is this: “If I type the keywords of my abstract in Google search form, will I find the web page that contains my abstract in the first page of Google’s search results?”  If you can’t find your abstract on the web, your research is doomed to oblivion.  The abstracts may also be published in the websites of other journals, but is the abstract visible enough to search engines like Google?  Google has an algorithm that gives web pages value according to many rules, such as the following: “Is the key phrase in the url address?  Is the key phrase in one of the major headings?  Is the key phrase found in the abstract?  Are the tags common key phrases or unique to the abstract? How many websites link to the abstract?  How big are these websites?”  The science of answering these questions is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

The Ateneo Physics Archives is built on WordPress blogging platform, which is Google friendly: address urls are human-readable, and blog posts are almost immediately visible on the web after you publish it.  In Ateneo Physics Archives, we also take care in getting the significant tag phrases, which are Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs).  The more contributions there are to Ateneo Physics Archives, the greater its web page rankings its postings get, and the more likely it will land in the first page of Google search results for specific key words.

The Ateneo Physics Archives also takes care in categorizing the entries per department and classifying them into different subcategories: Book, Book Chapter, Conference Local, Conference International, Journal Local, Journal International, Thesis BS, Thesis MS, and Thesis PhD.  The titles of the headings are also coded by the initials of the publication source and year of publication.  This makes it easier for departments to keep track of their publications.  Also, since Ateneo Physics Archives is not self-hosted but runs on WordPress cloud–a multitude of anonymous computers–we can be assured that the data is always there in the cloud.

 Question 4.  What will happen to the official Ateneo Physics Department website in the School of Science and Engineering?  

We cannot tinker with the layout of the original website for doing so would destroy the branding of the School of Science and Engineering.  A departmental website which sticks out like a sore thumb compared to other departments is a bad marketing decision.  But since Ateneo Physics Department has so much content to publish (e.g. Ateneo Physics News and Ateneo Physics Archives), we have to think outside of the box by making several interlinked websites with their own mission and vision, but with one common theme layout, in order to strengthen the Ateneo Physics brand.  These websites will have the official department’s website as the common hub or launching point.

Question 5.  What are other web marketing initiatives that the Ateneo Physics Department shall undertake in the future in order to promote the Ateneo Physics brand? 

We have the Ateneo Physics Facebook where we get news from our alumni, make announcements, and post pictures.   But the problem with Facebook is that it is not friendly to search engines and it is difficult to find content that you posted.  I am now thinking of shifting to Flickr for the department’s pictures.  The pictures can be tagged in Flickr, and anyone who searches those tags would land on the department’s Flickr page.  We will soon have the Ateneo Physics channel in You Tube, but definitely not this semester.  We still have to invest in good video equipment, study video editing, and write good storylines.  I am ambivalent towards Twitter.  I think that maybe for next year.

By mid-July, we shall launch the Ateneo Physics Teacher.  It’s a blog on “how to’s”.  Here are sample contents: How do you teach coordinate system transformation?  How do you clean the bell jar of the vacuum laboratory?  How do you operate a LIDAR?  This blog shall become the repository of the Physics Department’s teaching tradition.  Videos of lecture-demonstrations from the Ateneo Physics Channel will be linked here.  The aim of the Ateneo Physics Teacher is help teachers from all over the Philippines and the rest of the world teach physics.  By doing so, we help promote the Ateneo Physics brand in order to attract the best teachers and students to the Ateneo Physics Department.

Question 5.  Are there references that you like to recommend to those who are also interested in web marketing and branding?

Lately, I have been reading lots books on management, marketing, and branding.  I think, the most helpful book is the book I read this week:

Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (John Wiley & Sons, 2011), 282 pages.

The Physics Department is in the business of selling ideas so that other people will buy the idea, i.e. change his view of the physical world we live in.  We want to convert the world, one student at a time.  And that time starts now.

Dr. Adrian Serohijos of Harvard University to give a talk at the Ateneo Chemistry Department: “Evolution from first principles: molecules, organisms, and populations”

Dr. Adrian Serohijos

EVOLUTION FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES: Molecules, Organisms, and Populations

by Adrian W. R. Serohijos, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology,
Harvard University

June 17, 2011
Friday
4:30-6:00 pm
Schmitt Hall Room Ch-109

ABSTRACT

Evolution is intrinsically a process that spans multiple length and time scales. At the molecular level, mutations occur randomly in the genome changing the phenotype of individual organisms. At the ecological level, evolutionary selection operates on populations since  species survive or go extinct as a community. In the last century,  these multiple scales have traditionally been pursued by separate scientific disciplines, starting from physical chemistry, microbiology and molecular biology, and ecology.

Here, Dr. Serohijos will present their work to develop a unified framework of evolution that couples molecular properties (such as thermodynamic stability of proteins, copy number, and structure) with organism lifestyles. He will demonstrate that this unified framework advances our understanding of some fundamental rules in nature.

About the speaker:

Adrian Serohijos is a theoretical and computational biophysicist whose interests span bioinformatics, structural biology, protein engineering, systems biology, and evolution.

Adrian is an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University (BS Physics, cum laude, 2002 and BS Computer Engineering 2003).

As a graduate student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
(2004-2009), he employed and developed computational and theoretical  biophysical tools and models to address basic questions in biological systems such as the mechanism of molecular motors, etiology of cystic  fibrosis, and development of cancer biomarkers.

He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department of Harvard University where he is developing a unified theory of evolution.

Dr. Quirino Sugon Jr. (Physics), Dr. Jerrold Garcia (Physics), and Dr. Adrian Serohijos

(Chingkay) (Chemistry), Dr. Jerrold Garcia (Physics), Dr. Adrian Serohijos, and Dr. Nina Rosario Rojas (Chemistry)

Mr. John Bermundo (Physics), Dr. Jerrold Garcia (Physics), Dr. Adrian Serohijos, and Ms. Jennifer Damasco-Ty (Physics)