Erasmus+ ARTIST project for science teaching innovation at AdMU: An interview with Mr. Ivan Culaba of the Physics Department

The ARTIST partners during the kick-off meeting at University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany on January 2017. In the photo are Dr. Joel Maquiling (back row, 3rd from the left) and Mr. Ivan Culaba (back row, 2nd from the right) of the Department of Physics, School of Science and Engineering, Ateneo de Manila University. Source: Action Research To Innovate Science Teaching (ARTIST)

by Quirino Sugon Jr

Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University-Manila were chosen by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Program as its two partner universities in the Philippines for the ARTIST (Action Research To Innovate Science Teaching) project. The other eight partner universities are University of Bremen (Germany), Ilia State University (Georgia), Alpe-Adria-University (Austria), University of Limerick (Ireland), Gazi University (Turkey), Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University (Georgia), The Academic Arab College of Education (Israel), and Oranim Academic College of Education (Israel). The project coordinators are Prof. Dr. Ingo Eilks of the University of Bremen and Prof. Dr. Marika Kapanadze of Ilia State University.

The ARTIST project aims to innovate science education through classroom‐based and teacher‐driven Action Research–a cycle of innovation, research, reflection and improvement–by forming networks of higher education institutions, schools and industry partners in each partner country. The ARTIST project allows the partner universities to acquire state-of-the art audio-visual and science equipment for teacher trainings and instructions. Training materials on action research will be developed and used in workshops and courses.

Below is an interview with Mr. Ivan Culaba, manager of the ARTIST project in Ateneo de Manila University.

1. What is your role in the project?  Are there other AdMU faculty involved here? 

I am the manager of the ARTIST project in Ateneo. In the Department of Physics, Dr. Joel T. Maquiling and Ms. Johanna Mae M.  Indias are also involved in the project. Joel has accompanied me in the meetings and helped in the presentations. Joel and Johanna helped in the identification of possible industry partners. Johanna also visited the high schools for evaluation as possible network partners. Ms. Via Lereinne B. Chuavon of the Office of Social Concern and Involvement assisted us in the networking with high schools and communications with the Schools Division Office of Marikina City. I also had very constructive discussions with Mr. Christopher Peabody of the Department of Chemistry. Mr. Tirso U. Raza, of the Office of Facilities and Sustainability has assisted us in finding the source of the audio visual equipment and in the preparation of the rooms for their installation. Our technicians, Mr, Numeriano Melaya, Mr. Colombo Enaje, Jr. and Mr. Ruel Agas have been working on making the ADMU ARTIST Network Center and Physics Education Resource Center (F-230, Faura Hall) become functional.

 

Action Research for the Reflective Practitioner workshop at Ateneo de Manila University, 7 April 2017

3. How did you get involved in the project?

 

This project was conceived by Prof. Eilks and Prof. Kapanadze after their successful implementation of TEMPUS project SALiS. I met Prof. Kanapadze during the Active Learning in Optics and Photonics workshop at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia in 2014, where she was the organizer. She invited me into the ARTIST project and I extended the same invitation to Dr. Lydia Roleda of the De La Salle University-Manila.

I became interested in the ARTIST project since we had just started with the NSTP activity wherein our Physics majors were assigned to Sta. Elena High School for the area engagements. While our students were facilitating in the high school students’ physics activities we were also engaged in the Physics training of the science teachers in the same school. We thought that the high schools would immensely benefit from the ARTIST project in line with the university’s thrust for greater social involvement and service learning.

The ARTIST project was approved by the EU commission on October 2016 but the first tranche of the budget was released on January 2017.

4. What were your ARTIST meetings in Europe all about? 

The kick-off meeting was held at the University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany on 18-20 January 2017. It was the first time that we met our collaborators in the project. The objectives of the project, deliverables, work plans, and financial management among other topics were discussed. The second meeting was held at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Vienna, Austria on 14-15 September 2017. Progress reports on the networking with schools and industries, financial status of each partner university, scheduling of the workshops, planning of the e-journal ARISE and other matters were discussed in the meeting. The EU officials were not present in the meeting.

Physics Education Resource Center (PERC) and ARTIST Network office Room F-230, Faura Hall

5. How is the Physics Education Resource Center in Faura Hall?  

I am very happy that we now have a Physics Education Resource Center (PERC) where the Physics Education group can meet and hold meetings and where the valuable lecture demonstration experiment set-ups can be displayed and made accessible to the faculty of the Department. A number of the demos have been transferred from F-229 and SEC C labs to PERC. Acquisition and development of lecture demonstration experiments will be a continuing process. The next step is the documentation of the resources so that the faculty may know what demos are available and how to use them.

The room will also serve as the office of the ARTIST project. The science equipment which will be purchased under this project will be placed in this room. We have ordered Physics equipment which are aligned to the Physics topics in Grades 7-10, although they may also be used for senior high school Physics. The list covers mechanics, heat and thermodynamics, waves and sound, optics and electromagnetism. There will also be materials which will be locally fabricated like ticker taper timers, circuit boards and Plexiglass lenses.

6. What are upcoming activities of the ARTIST project for this year?

We have held two seminar-workshops on Action Research. The first one was held on August last year in Ateneo de Manila. Prof. Maricar S. Prudente, who is an expert in Action Research, was the main speaker. The facilitators were Dr. Lydia S. Roleda, Dr. Minie Rose C. Lapinid and Dr. Socorro C. Aguja. They are all from the Science Department, Bro. Andrew Gonzales, FSC College of Education, De La Salle University. There were about ten participants from Roosevelt College, Inc. and some graduate students.

The second seminar-workshop was held recently on 7 April 2018 at Faura Hall, Ateneo de Manila. It was organized by the ARTIST team of Ateneo and De La Salle. The same team of speaker and facilitators from De La Salle University ran the seminar-workshop. A total of 31 participants from the ARTIST network of high schools – Parang High School, Sta. Elena High School, Marikina High School, Colegio de San Agustin, and graduate students in MS Science Education attended the workshop.

Another workshop on Action Research will be held on 15-18 May 2018 at De La Salle University-Manila. The ARTIST partners from Germany, Ireland, Austria, Georgia and Israel will facilitate the workshop. The first three days will be spent on understanding AR and writing AR proposals by selected teacher-participants. There will be an AR symposium, open to other teachers, on the fourth day where AR case studies will be presented.

Come October 2018 the workshop on Action Research and a meeting of the collaborators will be held in Haifa, Israel.

7. Any parting thoughts?

We hope that this project will have a positive impact on the way science is taught in the partner high schools and the lessons learned from these experiences may be adapted by other schools in the country.

Participants of Action Research for the Reflective Practitioner workshop at Ateneo de Manila University, 4 August 2017

Ateneo Physics faculty Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero is NAST Outstanding Young Scientist and TWAS Prize awardee for 2013

NAST Outstanding Young Scientist Awardees of Ateneo de Manila University: Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero of Physics and Dr. Liane Peña Alampay of Psychology. Dr. Raphael Guerrero also received the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize for Young Scientist in the Philippines.

by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Ateneo Physics faculty Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero received two awards from the National Academy of Sciences (NAST) Philippines during its 35^th Annual Scientific Meeting last 10-11 July 2013 at the Manila Hotel: Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) and Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize. The NAST OYS award is “given to young Filipino scientists…who have made significant contributions to science and technology.” Dr. Guerrero is one of the nine awardees. The NAST TWAS Prize, on the other hand, “is an award given to outstanding young Filipino scientist by the Academy (NAST) and TWAS in the field of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Physics.” The TWAS award has the same age requirement as that of the OYS award. For the year 2013, the TWAS award was Dr. Raphael Guerrero:

 For 2013, the award is given to outstanding individual in the field of Physics. Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero of the Ateneo de Manila University was declared recipient of the said award, in recognition of his important studies on volume holographic storage and animation which offers a new holographic method for storing multiple pages of data in a nonlinear crystal and his works on the diffraction from relief gratings on a biomimetic elastomer cast from the carapace of a beetle found in Mindanao, Philippines, which have contributed significantly to the visibility of Philippine physics within the global community of scientists.

The other NAST OYS awardee is Dr. Liane Pena-Alampay of the Department of Psychology (see the related news story at the Loyola Schools website).  Below is an an interview with Dr. Raphael Guerrero by the Ateneo Physics News.

Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero in his office at the Photonics Laboratory in Faura Hall

Question 1: Can you tell us more about the award?

I was awarded Outstanding Young Scientist by the NAST, the highest recognition and advisory body regarding S&T in the country. NAST is a body consisting of the premier minds of science in the Philippines. The President of the Philippines listens to the recommendations of NAST. The awarding process started July 11, 2013. Last November 2, the nomination forms and supporting documents were submitted for those who wish to get the award for 2013. The notification letters came by the fourth week of May. It was six months of waiting. There was a screening committee for the Outstanding Young Scientists. They asked me to submit other requirements: descriptions of scientific accomplishments and other stuff needed to get a background on what I do as a scientist.

Question 2. How long have you been in Ateneo?

I started teaching in the second semester of SY 2000-2001. That was 13 years ago. I had just received my master’s degree from UP that April. After a semester of being a research associate at NIP, I decided to give teaching a try. Back then, I walked up to the third floor. The chair was Dr. Holdsworth. I inquired about the possibility of teaching in the department. Luckily, the department was actually looking for an instructor. After submitted my documents, they gave me a load. My load was interesting: I taught all majors for Ps 171 (Classical Electrodynamics I), Ps 113 (Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics), and Ps 102 (Classical Mechanics II). Not bad for someone teaching for the first time.

I gave a demonstration lecture. I remember that Gemma Narisma, Ivan Culaba, Obiminda Cambaliza, and Joel Maquiling were part of the audience. We had not really met at that point in time. I gave a demo on diffraction from a slit. It was in F304. I did not notice anybody else or maybe I was scheduled at a different time. I’m not sure if there were other new faculty.

Question 3. What was your career background?

I went to UP Rural High School. It is the official high school of UP Los Baños located next door to my elementary school. After high school, I always wanted to go to UP Diliman. I applied for their Physics program at UP Diliman, a pure physics program. It was a five-year course. (I work mostly on Applied Physics these days.) In 1998, I entered the laser physics lab in my 3rd year doing work on photorefractive crystals. In that same year, I graduated after performing work on Bismuth Silicon Oxide type of photorefractive crystal requiring 5 kV applied voltage. It was the first demo of volume data storage in the Philippines. Back then, it was the best you can possibly do. Holography was still in infancy in the late 1990s. After graduation, I felt I learned nothing from my BS degree, so I took up master’s degree in UP Diliman. It took two years. Different crystals, but still on volume holography and Lithium Niobate. I obtained my masters degree in 2004. Getting a PhD was longer.

I took a break for a semester before proceeding to the PhD program in UP. I started the PhD program while teaching in Ateneo. I mostly teach a series of electives The biggest challenge was coming up with an original work published. After some awkward first few years of trying to find a suitable topic, I was able to publish an article on pattern recognition, still using Lithium Niobate and volume holography. It was accepted June 2004. I graduated with PhD in Physics in 2005. This was while I was teaching full time in Ateneo. In 4.5 years, a Ph.D. can be done full time.

After obtaining the third degree, I was no longer interest in postdoctoral study. It is not something programmed into me. I became busy improving the research capabilities of the Photonics Laboratory in Ateneo. In Physics, we can generate ISI-indexed publications.

I received funding from government over a course of several projects. Previously, the Photonics Laboratory was focused on optical fibers and semiconductor diode lasers. That was the laboratory I saw in 2001 which I inherited under Dr. Holdsworth. Today, the laboratory is mostly on elastomeric optics using PDMS or polydimethylsiloxane, commonly known as silicones. We also have the only working volume in holography set-up in the country. The technology was transplanted from the National Institute of Physics (NIP) to here at the Department of Physics of the Ateneo de Manila University.

In 2005, Ateneo made me assistant professor. No big deal, after getting your PhD. After four years of working and generating papers, I became Associate Professor in 2009, still teaching full time. And here we are in 2013–still teaching, still in the same office.

Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero with his family

Question 4. What led you into physics?

My parents are trying to figure that one out. After the awarding, we were getting coffee and they were just talking, reminiscing whether there were any signs I would go into science. My father, Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, is a famous man of science. He developed the method of increasing the productivity of the tilapia industry using the sex reversal technique. He is a legend. His science helped people get food. It is a really important piece of technology. My mother, of course, is a talented zoologist. These fields are loosely related to experimental physics.

I guess, when I was growing up, I remember my father going on trips giving lectures, seminars. Each time he would come home with a souvenir and a toy. All the toys are science-based. The rocket would be launched via water pressure. A He-Man flashlight which you pumped with your hand. There are also Chemistry toys, but I never liked chemistry. I had two telescopes. I had a lot of toys that deals with science in high school.

When we were choosing courses, I joked that that the hardest course in the list is UPCAT. Physics was good. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology were hot, really hot in early ‘90s, but people didn’t know what they were. Physics just sounded really good, so I went to UP Los Baños for Applied Physics. I saw the people working in the farm — that was not really inspiring to me. So I decided to pursue physics. Diliman was the flagship school of UP, the only UP branch that offered physics, and I really wanted to go to Diliman. UPLB was not cool enough for me.

And in the ‘90s, there was MacGyver. He was known for figuring out and solving problems and helping people. There was amazing physics in MacGyver. It was something to do, but in the end it was still a mystery. I don’t know why I went to this field. Interesting. Maybe it’s because people are impressed by physics majors, though scientists find that hard to believe.

Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero and his toy collection

Question 5. Can you tell us about your toys?

Well, they say men never really grow up. I might be the best example of that. Some men have sports cars as toys. Some guys a high-end computers. I just stuck with actual toys. My collection is not random. Some are based on comic characters I resonated with, on stories from Marvel and DC. Like growing up I bought toys and statuettes in some cases, portrayed them in some cases, because the stories are nice. Buying a toy is my way of commemorating how important they were to me growing up. Also with a regular salary, it is easier to buy toys. I was able to buy Voltes V in die-cast metal that I did not get one Christmas. Voltes-V costs a lot of money back then. It costs even more now. It was a lost opportunity; I could have bought it before. Anything that I find interesting that I can afford these days, I look for bargains. I also have a collection of comics in high school, and I never stopped. It has become a major investment in money and space. I have several shelves dedicated to graphic novels. The boxes of comic books increase in number every year. Cliché in Big Bang Theory. That is my life right there. Interesting hobby. Very interesting way to spend your time collecting mementos and reading these fantastic stories.

I give my students a false sense of security in PS1 and PS11. I always start the class with a broad description of physics — really interesting, such as Star Wars, using it after every sentence. that is the fun part of the semester: light sabers, star destroyers, or faster than light travel. They all have physics in them, but no syllabus. I find it really difficult to lecture physics. How I wish I could inject a Star Wars into every lecture. With both content and time constraint, this is not feasible.

6. You travel a lot?

Not as much as I would like to travel for free. I have been lucky having visited many countries because of my physics background–attending conferences, being invited or participating in a certain function. I have a checklist of countries. Egypt, 2008. I am specifically looking forward to a conference in Cairo. I found a military college in Egypt which gave me an excuse to visit Egypt, with support from the University. Subsidized conference expenses. It would be worth it to touch the great pyramids, inhale the dust of Giza Plateau. In Italy, Rome was nice. I was able to see the David sculpture of Michaelangelo. I was able to take a picture of – you are not supposed to do that. I went to Japan several times. US, of course, is my favorite destination for the shopping and for the sheer size of the conferences in optics. Largest Optics Cnference is the SPIE conference in San Diego. It runs for several days. The research areas in optics were vast, so vast that they have become subsections. The plenary talks were from Nobel laureates were humbling and inspiring. Just to mingle with those optical scientists proved inspiring.

Every year I try to go abroad. But I still have to go to Paris. I want to see the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Taj Mahal. I want to know what is like to travel in another Third World country. I want to go to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, though my wife is terrified of possibly catching diseases. I wish to go to the Great Wall of China. I have not seen in years.

Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero with his graduate and undergraduate thesis students at the Photonics Laboratory

7. Are there other things you wish to add?

I want to thank the department for providing me such a welcoming and supportive home for my professional career. Many faculty members here have become my close friends. I am lucky to be part of the faculty in Ateneo. Ateneo trusted me with a load of teaching these college kids. It feels like it’s a privilege and an honor to be part of this institution. I am very grateful to the Department of Physics, which really supported through these past thirteen years in my accomplishments, awards, publications, action figures, although all that would not have been possible without the support of the university.

8. What are you visions or plans for the Photonics Laboratory?

We talked about this, Pope (Quirino Sugon Jr.). I wish getting published in a journal were easier. Over the next five years, we will have every graduate thesis in Photonics translated in tons of ISI-indexed articles. I plan to translate these into articles this year for all of my graduate students. I would also like to increase the output of papers. Hopefully, we can increase the average number of paper published from one paper a year to two papers a year. I would like to apply for lots of big projects, or maybe buy bigger light sources and lasers and other equipment the lab needs to proceed with research output. I plan to increase publications output. Well, it is still the same goal I had five years ago.

9. Do you have any message to our physics students?

I wish you all the best! I hope physics is as good to you as it is to me. I have been very, very lucky that physics has had to do with my success up to this point, and I hope you will fully enjoy the adventure as physics majors as much as I did. Don’t lose hope! There is a future in physics. You just have to find it.

Dr. Raphael A. Guerrero and Dr. Liane Pena-Alampay with the administrators of NAST and Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo Physics Department welcomes back Dr. Minella Alarcon from UNESCO: Inquiry-Based Science Teaching (IBST) training of Ateneo de Manila High School teachers

by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Dr. Minella Alarcon (first from the left) and Mr. Ivan Culaba (third from the left) with the Ateneo de Manila High School teachers

After working for more than a decade at UNESCO as Programme Specialist responsible for the basic sciences, particularly, physics and mathematics, and science education, and being cited last August 2010 by SPIE for her founding and heading the successful project ALOP (Active Learning in Optics and Photonics), Dr. Minella Alarcon has retired from UNESCO and returns to her roots at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Physics.

Dr. Minella Alarcon got her PhD degree in Physics from UP Diliman back in 1987 and did her experimental research at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. It was in 1987 that she started the Laser Laboratory in the department with experiments in Applied Laser Spectroscopy and set up in 1996 the Mie Lidar System at the Manila Observatory. Dr. Nofel Lagrosas, the present Chair of the department of physics, was among those who worked with her.

A lidar is a laser radar: instead of radiowaves with wavelengths of several kilometers, you have laser beams with wavelengths less than the width of your hair. Lidar systems are used for measuring pollutants in the atmosphere, such as soot and aerosols, through their light backscattering properties.

At present, Dr. Alarcon teaches Quantum Mechanics at the Department of Physics.

Quantum Mechanics is the physics behind the atom where electrons cease to become particles but blur into now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t quantities governed by Schrodinger’s equation. When electrons jump to different energy states, light is emitted or absorbed at particular frequencies. When electrons of different atoms jump down at the same time, the light emitted is very well behaved as in a laser beam.

But physics education beckons. Together with Mr. Ivan Culaba and Mr. Joel Maquiling from the Physics Department, two of the international team of ALOP facilitators, Dr. Alarcon is seen once again organizing workshops in physics education. Project ALOP is an international endeavor under which more than 400 teachers in developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America have been trained in 13 workshops since 2004. For 2011, the ALOP team, which includes Dr. Alarcon, Mr. Culaba and Mr. Maquiling, won the SPIE Educator Award. This time the workshop venue is the Ateneo de Manila High School and the participants are the Ateneo High School teachers in physics and other sciences. They are using the inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) approach, emphasizing hands-on activities, making observations from direct experience, asking questions, making predictions, designing investigations, analyzing data and supporting claims with evidence. It’s a 16-week training course, 4 hours per week, covering the topics of mechanics, electromagnetism, and optics. It is no longer an ordinary classroom: it is science in action.

Welcome back Dr. Alarcon!

So it was written, so it shall be done

Do you see what I see?

Thus far shall you come but no farther

A few good men

Who is the girl at the window pane?

E pur si muove--And yet it moves

M.S. Physics offshore program of Ateneo de Manila University and Angeles University Foundation, Pampanga

by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Angeles University Foundation

Every Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m., Jerry Barretto and I arrive at the carpark facing the Science Education Complex A.  There is a van waiting not only for us, but also for two other teachers from Chemistry and Biology Departments.  We are all going to Angeles University Foundation in Pampanga for our offshore graduate program.

The Ateneo-AUF Offshore M.S. scholarship program was proposed by Dean Fabian Dayrit and was funded by CHED.  The students should finish within two years or less.  CHED shall pay all their tuition and fees and allowances.  The lectures are only during Saturdays, so that the teachers can still teach in their classes during weekdays.

We have seven M.S. Physics students in this batch:

1. Alejo, Sherlyn Ambida–Central Luzon College of Science and Technology (Olongapo City)
2. Calugay, Melvin–Lyceum of Subic Bay (SBMA-Olongapo City)
3. De Leon, Analiza–Philippine Science High School, Central Luzon Campus
4. Forteza, Rex–Philippine Science High School, Central Luzon Campus
5. Herrera, Ireneo–Angeles University Foundation
6. Saingan, Ryan–University of Baguio
7. Syhuat, J-Lyn Anicete–Pampanga High School, San Fernando City, Pampanga

These are the only students who passed the post-bridging program exam.  The bridging program started last 2nd Semester of SY 2010-2011, with Jerry teaching Ps 101 Mechanics and me teaching Ps 171 Electromagnetics; we team teach the Ps 121 Vector Analysis.  Last summer the students studied in Ateneo and their teachers were Mr. Joel Maquiling for Ps 113 Statistical Mechanics, Mr. Patricio Dailisan for Ps 122 Matrices and Differential Equations, and Dr. Raphael Guerrero for Quantum Mechanics.  Of the original eight students who entered last November, one shifted to M.S. Biology, two did not pass the qualifying exam.  Last summer, two students from Philippine Science High School-Central Luzon joined the program.  This makes the total number to seven.

Even if the Physics Department has to go to AUF, it is still a long way for some students.  One of them was from University of Baguio.  He leaves his home at 2:30 a.m. in order to reach school by 9:00 a.m.  Others have to take several rides–tricycle, bus, jeep.  It is difficult to reimburse their transportation because, except for buses, there are no formal receipts.  A solution has been proposed: let their own Barangay certify that this such and such amount is their transportation cost.  This shall then be considered by CHED for reimbursement.

The road to Pampanga this past two Saturday’s is unusual.  The great plains of Luzon has become the great flood.  Water, water everywhere, but water mixed with mud.  The white herons or the tagak are gone–perhaps they already migrated.  On a good day, you can see them dotting the rice fields or nesting on the trees.

We passed the long bridge spanning a great river–more like a little stream, but gauging from the distance from bank to bank, this little stream was more than ten times larger at the peak of its tide.

We usually arrive at 8:30 a.m. in Angeles University.  We pass by the graduate school office and get our attendance sheets.  Then we proceed to the cafeteria for our breakfast.  It’s Pampanga, so we get the best of Pampanga specialty: tocino, bacon, longganiza–at least one of them per meal.  Then the waiter shall ask us what we wish to drink.  I get to sample all sugary drinks to the diabetic heart’s content.

Jerry teaches Ps 201 Classical Mechanics from 9:00-12:00 a.m.  I teach Ps 271 Classical Electrodynamics from 1:00-4:00 p.m.  Our friends from Biology and Chemistry asked us why we do not wish to teach for six hours instead.  Our standard reply: we do wish to get tired.  So we’d rather go to AUF every Saturday teaching only 3 hours per meeting, than to go half the number of Saturdays but teach 6 hours.  While waiting, we read our mails, check our papers, and prepare our lessons.  Sometimes, along the way, he would ask me questions regarding the revision of his dissertation on matrix optics and aberration theory, which he successfully defended last March 2011.  Dr. Raphael Guerrero of the Photonics is his adviser and I am a member of his panel.  Time flies fast.

At 4:00 p.m. we leave AUF.  Last two Saturdays, it was drizzling.  And we beheld a rainbow arching over the heavens.  For a moment, all physics of ray tracing, dispersion theory, and wave interference vanished.  And all I hear is a poem by William Wordsworth in our En 14 Poetry class years ago under Dr. Jonathan Chua:

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky :
So was it when my life began ;
So is it now I am a man ;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die !
The Child is father of the Man ;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

The flood plains of Pampanga

A rainbow after a rain in Pampanga

Dr. Fabian Dayrit talks about the Ateneo-AUF Offshore graduate program

Dr. Fabian Dayrit talking to the students of the offshore programs in M.S. Biology, M.S. Chemistry, and M.S. Physics

The M.S. Physics students in the Ateneo-AUF offshore program in one of the classrooms in Angeles University Foundation

Some faculty of Ateneo de Manila University in Angeles University Foundation. From left to right: Dr. Quirino Sugon (Physics), Dr. Christine Lagunzad (Biology), Dr. Rene Macahig (Chemistry), and Jerry Barretto (Physics).

Ateneo Physics teachers Joel Maquiling and Ivan Culaba are recipients for the 2011 SPIE Educator award

February 2, 2011

Mr. Joel Maquiling
Ateneo de Manila University
Loyola Heights Campus
Physics Department
Katipunan Ave
Quezon City 1108
Philippines

Dear Mr. Maquiling:

On behalf of the Officers and Directors of SPIE, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that you and the other members of the Active Learning in Optics & Photonics Team listed below have been named the 2011 recipients of the SPIE Educator Award. The SPIE Educator Award is presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to optics education by an SPIE instructor or an educator in the field…

Minella Alarcon, Project Director UNESCO, France
Zohra Ben Lakhdar, Facilitator (University El Manar, Tunisia)
Ivan Culaba, Facilitator (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines)
Alex Mazzolini, Facilitator (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)
David Sokoloff, Facilitator (University of Oregon, USA)

The SPIE Awards Committee has made this recommendation in recognition of your team’s efforts under the auspices of UNESCO to bring basic optics and photonics training to teachers in the developing world. You and your team have literally “brought light” to hundreds of teachers and students with your hands-on workshops, insipiring a a new generation of scientists in those nations.

We would like to honor you at your choice of SPIE’s meetings from the list on the attached form. Please direct your reply to Ms. Andrea Jacques at SPIE Headquarters in Bellingham (…), and she will be able to help you with the logistics as the date draws nearer. I sincerely hope you will be able to join us and accept this award at one of our events in the near future.

Your colleagues in the optical engineering community join me in expressing our sincere congratulations to you on this well-deserved honor. We sincerely hope that you will be able to join us for one of the presentation events, and I hope to have the opportunity of personally congratulating you.

Sincerely,

Katarina Svanberg
2011 SPIE President

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light.