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.

Vee graduated from the NIP BS Applied Physics program in 2019. He consequently obtained an MS degree in Data Science from the Asian Institute of Management. He is currently a professional data scientist and applies his expertise in digital marketing.

Tim completed the Materials Physics concentration of the BS Applied Physics program in 2021. For his undergraduate thesis research, he studied how conduction electrons on the surface of a metallic nanoparticle behaves when illuminated by electromagnetic radiation. He continued following his research interests by pursuing an MS degree at the Materials Science and Engineering Program of the College of Science. Outside the academe, Tim pursues weightlifting as a sport.

Jan Philippe entered the NIP MS Physics program as a DOST-ASTHRDP scholar after graduating with highest honors from MSU-IIT. He completed the MS Physics program in 2017. Jan's results on correlation functions in quenched spin chains have been presented at several conferences with the support of the UPD OVCRD through Project No. 161614 PhDIA.

Ryan graduated from the BS Applied Physics program in 2004. He later obtained a Master of Management (Business Management) degree under the UP Extension Program in Olongapo (UPEPO) while working as a game animator for various online gaming companies. He then worked as a software engineer, developing enterprise applications for startup companies in Silicon Valley and the Boston area. Now based in Makati, Ryan is a video game developer and occasional book illustrator.

Alex earned her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in 2019 with the support from the CHEd Faculty Development Program and the ICTP-OFID Sandwich Training Educational Programme. She was the Most Outstanding PhD Graduate of the College of Science for the Academic Year 2018-2019. Her dissertation was a theoretical study of how gas molecules like carbon dioxide adsorb on boron nanoclusters. She is a faculty member of the UPLB Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics.

Neris obtained her MS Physics degree from NIP in 2010. Her graduate studies center on numerical simulations of quantum search algorithms. She has briefly worked as faculty for the Technological Institute of the Philippines and Far Eastern University. Neris defended her PhD dissertation on nuclear magnetic resonance-based quantum computing in 2021. She was supported by a DOST-ASTHRDP scholarship. She is now a faculty member at the Ateneo de Manila University.

While at the university, Sam did his research on near-term hybrid classical-quantum algorithms and the simulation of simple quantum systems using IBM Qiskit. He completed the BS Physics program in 2024, graduating cum laude. In his free time, Sam likes to stay informed on recent scientific breakthroughs and emerging technologies as well as pursue his hobbies of cooking, reading manga/manhwa, and playing video games. He is currently studying machine learning and quantum computing in preparation for employment within the industry.

Robert earned his BS degree in Applied Physics in 2015 with the support of a DOST-SEI Undergraduate S&T Scholarship. His research involved performing fluid simulations and chaos-related calculations on a parallel computing platform. Robert was also a student assistant for the OVCRD-funded Project No. 141420 PhDIA. He is now applying his programming skills to respond to computer security threats.

Charmaine earned her Bachelor's degree in Applied Physics, graduating magna cum laude in 2024. She was supported by a DOST-SEI RA 7687 Scholarship. Her research utilized density functional theory to investigate how the electronic properties and optical spectra of vanadium dioxide are modified by doping by transition metal atoms.

Clarissa pursued the Materials Physics track of the BS Applied Physics program and completed it in 2024. She was a DOST-SEI Merit Scholar and graduated magna cum laude. Her training and specialization in materials physics provided her with a platform to complete her thesis on the modeling and characterization of prospective solar cell materials. She continues her passion for sustainable development and innovation by working for a firm that provides energy efficiency solutions.

Kryss earned her Bachelor's and Master's in Physics degrees in 2019 and 2023, respectively. Her research on 2D Ising models focused on the effect of spinless regions on their critical properties. She worked as a project assistant for the UP Diliman-funded projects PhDIA No. 161614 (2016-2017) and ECWRG Project 2018-1-009 (2018-2019). A DOST-ASTHRDP scholarship supported her graduate studies.

Louella completed the MS Physics program in 2006 under a DOST PCASTRD scholarship. Her research on the thermodynamics of carbon nanotubes was supported by a UPD OVCRD grant. She was also an NIP instructor and a SanD research assistant. In 2010, she obtained her PhD degree in Physics from the University of Warwick under the Vice Chancellor's Studentship award. She was later granted a research fellowship in Warwick to develop mechanistic models of stem cell reprogramming. Since 2012 Louella has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, where she performs genomic stem cell research with applications in transfusion therapy and disease modeling.

Celso obtained his BS Physics degree in 2019 with cum laude honors. As the SanD system administrator, he was responsible for the management of its computing cluster. For his BS thesis he developed a Monte Carlo algorithm that simulates the proliferation of epithelial cells. His undergraduate studies was supported by a DOST-SEI Undergraduate Merit Scholarship. He is now a management trainee in data science at a financial institution in Makati.

Vlad obtained his BS Physics, MS Physics, and PhD Physics degrees from the National Institute of Physics. He defended his PhD dissertation on refrigeration and spin transport in a one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model in 2022. His graduate studies were supported by a DOST-ASTHRDP-NSC scholarship. He is currently working as a faculty member at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Santo Tomas.