(Last of two parts)
LAST week we looked at several Outstanding Young Scientists, all of them not older than 40, who were awarded by the National Academy of Science and Technology in July for researches in various fields.
Here are the other awardees:
Engineering
Alvin Caparanga got his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree, silver medalist, in 1991 from the Mapua Institute of Technology. He completed in 1996 his Master of Science degree in the same field at the University of the Philippines Diliman, on a government scholarship.
In 2008, he became the first graduate of Mapua?s doctorate program in environmental engineering.
Caparanga?s research on the physical properties of new or alternative solvent systems has contributed to improvement in the design of processes and equipment for environmental applications. He has studied alternative waste management and plastic recycling.
As chair and program coordinator of chemical engineering at Mapua, Caparanga is part of a team that is trying to institute a program to reduce the carbon footprint of allied campuses.
Fredegusto David received a BS Mathematics degree in 1991 and an MS Applied Math degree in 1993, both from UP Diliman. He earned another MS in Applied Math and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering in 2000 and 2005, respectively, both from Texas A&M University.
His scientific interests are interdisciplinary, bridging math and biomechanics. His study on the biomechanics of the lens capsule of the eye, with a team of engineers, has increased human understanding of how this body part works, leading to design improvement of Alcon Laboratories? artificial lens for cataract implants. (The study was funded by Alcon.) David has also done math modeling on aneurysms, glaucoma, hypertension, skin biopsies, among others.
Currently working at the Institute of Mathematics in UP Diliman, he is coordinator of the Computational Science Research Center of the College of Science.
Medicine
Dr. Ma. Pura Rayco-Solon received a BS in Biology degree from UP Diliman and a Doctor of Medicine degree from UP Manila, specializing in pediatrics. In 2000, she obtained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians and an MS in Infection and Health in the Tropics degree (with distinction) from the London School of Hygiene and Medicine.
For several years, Rayco-Solon was a research scientist at the Nutrition Center of the Philippines, focusing on the role of vitamins and nutrients in children?s and maternal health.
As nutrition specialist of the United Nations Children?s Fund (Unicef), she now manages the implementation of programs on child food security and nutrition, universal salt iodization, and other forms of supplementation.
She is finishing her postgraduate studies (PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health) at her London alma mater.
Dr. Edsel Salvaña received a BS Biology degree, magna cum laude, in 1996 from UP Diliman, and a medical degree in 2001 from UP Manila.
From 2002 to 2005, he did his residency in internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and completed his fellowship in infectious diseases at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center and, later, Case Western Reserve University, becoming the first Filipino chief fellow of the Section of Infectious Diseases.
On his return to the country in 2008, he joined the research faculty at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the National Institutes of Health at UP Manila.
Salvaña focuses on tropical medicine, including diseases like encephalitis (brain inflammation) and schistosomiasis (snail fever). His groundbreaking work in lymphatic filariasis (an infection caused by parasite infestation) has been featured by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
His proposal to look at the epidemiology (the causes, distribution, and control of disease) of resistant bacteria in health care workers is now being reviewed by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
Sociology
Mary Janet Arnado obtained her BS degree in Development Communication from Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro, in 1991.
In 1997, with the help of a Ford Foundation scholarship grant, she received an MS in Social Science degree from De la Salle University, Manila. Through a scholarship and graduate teaching assistantship, she got her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2002 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Upon her return to her province, she founded the Research Institute for Gender and Women and taught sociology at the Bukidnon State University. Arnado studies globalization, gendered migration and violent conflict, reproductive health, sustainable agriculture, environmental health, and language.
With funding from the University of California in Irvine, she is currently exploring the uses of money among Philippine indigenous communities.
E-mail the author at blessbook @yahoo.com.
