Structure and Dynamics Group

Gerard finished his BS Physics degree in 2019. During his stay at SanD he modeled the anomalous diffusion of tracer particles on a graphene lattice using random walks and site percolation. He is now starting a career in data science at a financial institution in Makati.

Joshua obtained his BS degree in Physics summa cum laude in 2023. He was supported by a DOST-SEI Undergraduate Merit Scholarship. His BS thesis involved training convolutional neural networks to predict 24-hour wildfire spread through image segmentation. He now intends to pursue a career in data science in the financial sector using the programming and analytical skills he learned during his time at the National Institute of Physics.

Ralph obtained his BS Physics degree from NIP in 2006 and a Master's degree in Technology Management from the UP TMC in 2012. He was a network administrator for SanD. He has been involved with editorial services providers writing abstracts and indexing scientific articles. He has also worked for an IT services company and led a team of its technology consultants. Ralph later joined a multilateral development bank as an IT process analyst. He has since continued practicing IT service management as a change manager for a global financial management firm.

Ron completed the BS Physics program in 2004. His thesis was cited as the most outstanding BS Physics thesis of his graduating batch. He obtained further post-graduate training in network systems IT (UP ITDC) and technology management (UP TMC). Ron has worked for companies that integrate and provide IT system solutions. He is a certified Cisco professional and instructor that has designed and handled customized IT training programs. He now applies his expertise in enterprise and data network infrastructure to manage network engineering and services for a telecommunications company.

Matthew completed the NIP BS Applied Physics program in 2019. For his undergraduate thesis he calculated the hydrodynamic properties of submersibles used for rapid underwater coral surveying by computational fluid dynamics. After graduation he pursued his ambition to work in the aerospace sector, becoming a satellite operations engineer and mission planner for the Philippine Space Agency. In his free time, he performs in gigs around Metro Manila with his band Pinkmen.

Joselito studied thermoelectric transport in electron gas conductors in different dimensions as a SanD graduate student. He was also a SanD SA and was in charge of its computer systems. After obtaining his MS Physics degree in 2006, he worked for an international technology company that provides illumination and detection solutions to its customers. There he was employed as a design engineer and developed optoelectronic devices. In 2011 Joselito joined the Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory to continue his doctoral research on terahertz spectroscopy. He obtained his physics PhD in 2016.

Chris obtained his BS Physics degree in 2004. He studied the Penna model of biological aging using short bit strings and investigated its relationship to the logistic equation and chaos. He is now happily married to a fellow SanD alumna and provides plants with carbon dioxide while also working as a computer programmer.

Eric obtained his BS Physics degree in 2004. He studied the low energy states of polymers by Monte Carlo methods for his undergraduate thesis. After graduation, he pursued a career in information technology and became a certified Java programmer. Over the years, his programming skills have been tapped by several software outsourcing companies in the Philippines. Eric moved to Singapore in 2007 and works for the investment banking division of a Swiss global bank as a Java developer and systems analyst.

Spence completed his Bachelor's degree in Physics in 2023 with cum laude honors. His undergraduate thesis focused on the thermodynamic properties of small Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick spin systems at their energy crossings. His studies were supported by a DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship. In February 2023 he participated in the HPAIR Harvard Conference and attended the three-day series of leadership talks and seminars. He now pursues a Teaching Associate position and MS Physics degree at the National Institute of Physics to expand his knowledge, research skills, and passion for teaching.

Earl graduated from the BS Applied Physics program in 2010. He later obtained a Certificate in Information Technology (Mobile and Embedded Systems) from the UP ITTC (now ITDC). He works for a global energy company where he developed SharePoint architecture for its business applications. He was also briefly deployed to the US as a lead developer for a multisite SharePoint stack standardization initiative. Earl was later assigned to his firm's JDE projects team, which provides consulting and support services for the management of enterprise assets.

Lean finished his BS Physics degree in 2018. His undergraduate thesis on density functional theory focused on the computation of the piezomagnetic constants of some antiperovskite crystals using the Quantum ESPRESSO package. He is an active member of the UP Concert Chorus and has performed with them on international tours.

Xavier graduated cum laude from the NIP BS Applied Physics program in 2015. His research on entanglement in low temperature superconducting states earned him a spot in the National Finals of the 2015 BPI-DOST Science Awards. Xavier's BS thesis was recognized as the Most Outstanding BS Applied Physics Thesis for 2015, earning him a Leticia Shahani Award. Shortly after graduating, he became a power trader for a renewable energy company. He is now a data scientist who has has worked for firms in Cebu City and Metro Manila.

Joseph graudated magna cum laude from the BS Physics program in 2023. He was supported by a DOST-SEI Undergraduate Merit Scholarship. His thesis analyzes the performance of different singular value decomposition algorithms on image compression, which can also give insights on how they can perform decompositions of different matrices.

Mary June graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Applied Physics and with summa cum laude distinction in 2023. Her thesis was on machine learning techniques for Filipino language text classification. She is now looking to expand her expertise in the field of machine learning and data science by pursuing a graduate degree. Outside of her academic activities, she takes part in advocacy journalism and volunteer work.

Mariel obtained her BS Applied Physics degree in 2007 as a DOST-SEI scholar. From 2008 to 2009, she was a Java developer for a software development company where she was tasked to upgrade the online vehicle systems of its corporate clients. Mariel later joined an international insurance group to develop Pega applications as a certified PegaRULES Process Commander (PRPC) Systems Architect. Since 2014 she has been employed by a computer technology company in Makati as a professional programmer analyst.

Kobe graduated from the BS Physics program in the first semester of AY 2022-2023. For his thesis research he worked on the interpretability problem in computer vision by applying the method of integrated gradients. He seeks to continue his interests by pursuing a career in data science.

Kevin finished the NIP BS Applied Physics program in 2015. In his senior year he served as a project aide for the research project OVPAA-BPhD-2012-05. For his undergraduate thesis research he investigated the phase transition in a classical Ising model using cluster algorithms implemented in parallel. Shortly after defending his thesis, Kevin signed up to work for a computer security company.

Eddy graduated from the BS Physics program in 2018 with a cum laude distinction. He is pursuing further graduate studies in Economics at the University of the Philippines Diliman School of Economics. His undergraduate thesis involved the simulation of the radiation-induced bystander effect via fractional Brownian motion.

King obtained his BS Physics degree in 2015 with the support of a DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship. He performed project management tasks for the OVPAA-funded project OVPAA-BPhD-2012-05 as a member of its research staff from 2013-2015. Soon after graduating, King analyzed satellite imagery and oceanographic field data for a joint UP Marine Science Institute/DOST-PCCAARD study on the productivity of the Benham Rise. He now runs a company that provides laboratories with biomedical supplies and equipment.  

Joachim completed the BS Physics program of NIP in 2014. In his graduating year he worked as research staff for the OVPAA-funded research project OVPAA-BPhD-2012-05, performing administrative and research tasks for the project. He has also tutored high school students in science and math part-time. A few months after his graduation Joachim joined a computer security firm in Ortigas.

Ryan completed his BS Applied Physics degree in December 2016. He benchmarked MPI-parallelized calculations of the phase transition temperature of a frustrated classical spin model for his undergraduate thesis. Ryan has also been an active staff member who performed administrative tasks for the management of OVPAA BPhD Grant 2012-05. He is now a web application developer in Manila.

Miguel obtained his BS Applied Physics degree in 2017 with the distinction magna cum laude. For his undergraduate thesis work he used finite element analysis to simulate the dynamics of gas mixtures in CVD reaction chambers. He was also supported by a DOST Junior Level Science Scholarship. After briefly teaching at a senior high school, Miguel returned to NIP to complete the MS Physics program in 2021. He finished the ICTP Condensed Matter Physics Diploma Programme in 2022 and continued his PhD studies at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA).

Gina completed the NIP BS and MS Physics programs in 2004 and 2014, respectively. Her graduate research was on the thermodynamic properties of 2D electron systems with spin-orbit interactions. She has worked for technology companies for more than a decade and has experience in software engineering, technical support and operations, services and product delivery, program and project management, governance, quality consulting, customer experience, and data management. She is well-versed in enterprise-wide industry standards and policies. Gina is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science to further build expertise on data analytics.

Jhames finished the BS Physics program in 2018 as a DOST-SEI scholar. He was also a student assistant for SanD and managed its computer network. His research involved characterizing the local periodicity of iteroparous Penna populations as a prerequisite to the evolution of spatio-temporal distributed populations. He plans to pursue a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of San Carlos.

Lei completed the NIP BS Applied Physics program as a member of SanD in 2009. She then entered the MS Physics program as a member of the Instrumentation Physics Laboratory, graduating in 2012. During this time she was a university RA for the UP Marine Science Institute and later became involved with the Automated Rapid Reef Assessment System (ARRAS) Program as a Science Research Specialist. Since 2013 she has been working for a financial management services provider in Makati.

Marienette obtained her MS degree in physics in 2004 performing first principles simulations of magnetic heterostructures. Her research was supported by DOST PCASTRD and UP OVPAA grants. She obtained another MS degree from the University of South Florida in 2009. In 2015 she obtained her PhD degree from the Università degli Studi di Trieste performing spectroscopic studies of biomedical nanomaterials. She is currently a faculty member of the Materials Science and Engineering Program of the UP Diliman College of Science.

Aura completed her MS Physics degree under the DOST ASTHRD Program last December 2015. Prior to joining SanD as a graduate student, she was an engineer for an optical device and equipment manufacturer. Aura's research led to the identification of a subsystem observable whose fluctuations can be used to measure quantum entanglement. She has been working for a semiconductor laser company since 2016 and is now assigned to a post in Thailand.