The Chemistry Department of the UST College of Science in cooperation with the UST Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences and the College of Science of the Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) Taoyuan City, Taiwan, spearheaded the 2019 Joint Symposium on Chemical Sciences held at the UST Central Laboratory Auditorium from September 26 to 27, 2019. Its theme was ’Recent Innovations in Chemical Sciences for a Better Life.’
The symposium was divided into three technical sessions: the plenary session with six local and six foreign speakers, the flash talk with 22 presenters who were given one-minute to present their topic, and the poster presentation from which three best posters were chosen.
The research, Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) and Colorectal cancer development among Filipinos by Ana Maria D. Cariño, Edrienne Myena M. Magat, Gregg Austine Balanag, Allan Felizar, Teresa Sy Ortin, Leonardo Guevarra, Jr., and Pia Marie SP Albano was declared the best poster.
The research poster by Katherine Yasmin M. Garcia, Charles David V. Palillo, Chayanard Phukhamsakda, Kevin D. Hyde, Marc Stadler, and Allan Patrick G. Macabeo, titled “Discovery of novel spirodioxynaphthalene derivatives with ant-microbial, nematicidal and cytotoxic properties from Sparticola junci” won second place. Bagging the third place was the research titled External calibration vs standard addition method in the determination of calcium in drinking water by ICP-OES for proficiency testing studies by Clarissa J. Gatchalian, Christian D. Laurio, Elyson Keith P. Encarnacion, and Benilda S. Ebarvia.
This scientific event which brought together scientists from the two universities who presented frontiers of chemistry and allied sciences was made possible through the assistance extended by private companies. Almost 100 attendees come from different academic, government and industry sectors.
These endeavors which serve as venues for opening up possibilities of engaging the participants in meaningful collaborations are but few of the joint activities accomplished in pursuant to the Memorandum of Agreement between the two universities, UST and CYCU, which was signed in 2010.
A number of these collaborative efforts between UST and student and faculty mobility include sending of students under the Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry programs to CYCU for internships during the special term; CYCU hosting UST alumni and faculty members for postgraduate studies; delivering special lectures or serving as invited speakers of faculty researchers from both universities; and completing the PhP 4M MECO-TECO – a funded two-year joint project of Prof. Jui-Ming Yeh, Ph.D., (CYCU Principal Investigator) and Prof. Karen Santiago (UST Principal Investigator) in 2017 that resulted in a number of international joint publications and theses topics of undergraduate and graduate students.
The partnership continues as the UST College of Science Dean, Prof. John Donnie A. Ramos, Ph.D., considers benchmarking of UST Psychology Department with the CYCU Psychology Department. Similarly, the UST Office for International Relations and Programs (OIRP) and CYCU College of Science explore the possibility of offering enhancement training to UST Senior High School teachers by 2020. This November 2019, CYCU-College of Science will host the first Asian international conference in science to be participated in by other partners from Japan (Niigata University), Malaysia (University Tungku Abdul Raman), and the Philippines (UST).
