 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
The
Philippine-American Academy of Science and
Engineering (PAASE) was founded in 1980 to recognize the achievements
of outstanding Filipino scientists and engineers and to promote the exchange
of science and technology between the Philippines and the US. From a core
group of 21 founding members, PAASE has since grown to more than 200 members
mainly from the US, but also from the Philippines and other countries. Every
year, PAASE holds its annual meeting to showcase recent scientific accomplishments
and to promote and renew camaraderie among its members.
Opening ceremonies
at the 28th Annual PAASE Conference at Georgetown University.
Photo credit: Fabian Dayrit
Since 1997, the annual conference has been held alternately between
the US and the Philippines. On May 23 – 24, 2008, Dr. Pedro Jose of
Georgetown University at Washington DC hosted the 28th Annual Meeting of PAASE.
The event was deemed an overall success because of its record attendance of
108 participants from all over the US and the Philippines. Of these, 42 were
PAASE members, 66 were non-members, guests and students. The US participants
came from various states including California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Arkansas,
Arizona, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Washington
DC. Participation of Philippine-based attendees was at an all-time high of
18. Many of the participants came from the Metro Manila area including a contingent
from the universities around Mendiola. There were also a few participants
from Leyte, Batangas, Cavite, Ilocos Norte and Iloilo.
An annual event since 2000 is the granting of the Severino and Paz Koh (nee
Founder’s) Lectureship Awards in Science and Engineering in recognition
of outstanding PAASE members who have distinguished themselves in their respective
fields. The Science Lectureship Awardee for 2008 is Dr. Eduardo Padlan, a
retired biophysicist from the National Institutes of Health who is currently
an adjunct professor at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute
in Diliman. Although the Koh award was for his lifetime work on the structure
of antibodies, Dr. Padlan decided to talk about his latest research project,
the design of new vaccines against constantly mutating pathogens. Many pathogens,
like the flu virus, are able to evade the human immune response by constant
mutation of their immunodominant epitopes. These immunodominant epitopes are
what elicit the most response from our immune system. Dr. Padlan’s proposed
strategy is to use as vaccines the less antigenic versions of the pathogens’
immunodominant epitopes, so that our immune system could react vigorously
to other parts of the pathogen antigens. By using a computer program that
he wrote, Dr. Padlan is able to monitor the decrease in antigenicity as he
makes specific amino acid changes in the immunodominant epitope sequences.
Much of this latter work is being done in collaboration with researchers and
students at UP Diliman.
The 2008 Engineering Lectureship Award was presented to Dr. Romel Gomez, professor
of electrical engineering at the University of Maryland College Park. His
lecture touched on the key principles of quantum mechanics and led up to his
contributions to the development of a variety of tools, including the scanned
probe microscopy, that have revealed the intricate details of objects at the
nanometer length scale. He also used a variation of the microscope to reveal
other physical properties such as surface magnetization which he related to
electrical conduction involving the electron spin. At the end of his talk,
Dr. Gomez showed how to use the principles of scanned probe microscopy to
create artificial structures on solid surfaces with dimensions as small as
one thousandth (1/1000) the diameter of a human hair. Dr. Gomez has worked
on nanomaterials since the 1980s even before the term 'nanotechnology' became
vogue. Nanomaterials refer to novel materials for massive data storage, faster
and better computing devices and sensors for biomedical and other applications.
The 2-day Technical Program, which had a meeting theme of “Research
as an Enterprise”, covered a wide range of areas including biomedical
research, imaging, sensing, energy, the environment, astrophysics and information
technology. There were 11 plenary and keynote lectures, 36 oral presentations
in 2 parallel sessions and 10 posters. True to the diversity of PAASE, specific
presentations dealt with Alzheimer’s disease, quasars, bamboo waste
remediation, natural products chemistry, geothermal energy, the human glycome,
systems biology, the Filipino diaspora and quantum computing, among many varied
topics. Light talks during lunch and dinner covered the Filipino identity
by Dr. Pedro Jose of Georgetown University, how to get one’s published
work noticed by the science news media by Dr. Maureen Rouhi of Chemical &
Engineering News, and climate change by Dr. Josefino Comiso of NASA.
Dr. John Mather, Nobel Laureate
in Physics giving his keynote lecture on the Big Bang.
Photo
credit: Fabian Dayrit.
The Keynote Speaker on the second day of the conference was Dr. John C. Mather,
winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. This was easily one of the most
anticipated talks at the PAASE meeting. Dr. Mather talked about the history
of the universe starting with the Big Bang, how his involvement with NASA’s
Cosmic Background Explorer satellite resulted in data that supported the Big
Bang theory and eventually led to his winning the 2006 Nobel Prize. He also
discussed his latest project, the next great telescope called the James Webb
Space Telescope, which promises to look farther back in time than the Hubble
Space Telescope and could potentially discover life on other planets. After
his much applauded lecture, Dr. Mather was swamped by requests for his autograph
from a long queue of Filipino admirers, the likes of which one only sees with
rock stars.
As with every Annual PAASE Meeting, the event concluded with the Business
Meeting, which included a panel discussion of DOST’s Balik Scientist
Program with DOST Assistant Secretary Ma. Lourdes P. Orijola, and Balik Scientists,
Dr. Alfonso Albano and Dr. Jose B. Cruz, Jr. Next year’s Annual PAASE
Meeting will be hosted by Ateneo de Manila University in July.
BACK TO TOP
