Herpetological research is considered one of the strengths of UST’s Organismic and Environmental Biology cluster under its Department of Biological Sciences. Several alumni from this program joined top-notch research groups in herpetology after obtaining their initial training at the University.
Dr. Vhon Oliver S. Garcia (B.Sc. Bio 2011 and M.Sc. Biological Sciences 2013), who, apart from his degrees from UST, also finished an M.Sc. in Integrative Biology from the University of Guelph (Canada) and a Ph.D. from the University of Queensland (Australia). Dr. Garcia is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Adelaide (Australia) where he continues to conduct research on sea snakes – an interest which began when he conducted his M.Sc. thesis on the Lake Taal sea snake, Hydrophis semperi under the supervision of Acad. Dr. Arvin C. Diesmos and Prof. Dr. Rey Donne S. Papa.
Vhon, together with renowned sea snake expert Assoc. Prof. Kate Sanders, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow Dr. James Nankivell and doctoral student Ms. Amelia Pointon conducted a two-day seminar-workshop on sea snakes last August 14 and 15, 2024 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex (TARC) Auditorium and the Science Online Learning Environment (SOLE) Room. Garcia and his colleagues visited the university after participating in the World Congress of Herpetology held at the Universiti Malaysia in Sarawak.
Organized by the Department of Biological Sciences of the UST College of Science, both days saw the participation of biology students from the UST College of Science and Graduate School together with participants from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Nueva Vizcaya State University and St. Mary’s University – Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. Meetings to discuss future collaborations under the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Santo Tomas and the University of Adelaide were also discussed between concerned officials from the College of Science, particularly its International Relations Committee and the Department of Biological Sciences.
