The University of Shiga Prefecture (USP), in partnership with the UST Department of Biological Sciences, hosted the 3rd UST-USP Joint Symposium in the Lecture Hall A4-205 & 206 at the University of Shiga Prefecture campus in Hikone, Japan, last December 15, 2017. The event had taken place twice at the University of Santo Tomas—February 10, 2015 and February 28, 2017. The two universities have been conducting joint academic and research activities, specifically in aquatic biology since 2012 and have an active Memorandum of Agreement signed in the year 2013. The 3rd symposium was ably organized by Prof. Dr. Misako Urabe of USP.
The event opened with a welcome address by Prof. Yoshitsugu Hirokawa, President of USP and was followed by 11 lectures, which were divided into 3 sessions. The UST lecturers included Dr. Jonathan Carlo A. Briones, Ms. Alyssa Mae R. Portes (4th year B.Sc. Biology student), Ms. Janelle Laura J. Gacad (M.Sc. Microbiology student), Mr. Gerald Thomas A. Soliven, M.Sc. (Ph.D. Biology student), and Prof. Rey Donne S. Papa, PhD.
The poster session that followed included 19 poster-papers, with five coming from the University of Santo Tomas. The closing address was delivered by the Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences, Prof. Dr. Shinji Ide and was followed by a welcome dinner. The UST delegation included a total of 10 undergraduate students, 2 graduate students, and 3 faculty researchers.
