Structure and Dynamics Group

The Structure and Dynamics (SanD) research group is currently accepting applications for apprenticeship.

Qualifications:
Undergraduate students should have passed Physics 116 & 126.
Graduate students should have passed at least one graduate core course. 

The ICTP Asian Network School and Workshop on Complex Condensed Systems 2025 took place from 10 to 14 November 2025 at the National Institute of Physics in UP Diliman. It consists of a four-day school that provides pedagogical lectures in condensed matter physics, complex systems, and statistical physics, as well as a one-day workshop that showcases current trends and research results delivered in seminar-type talks. Lecturers and participants from network node members and their affiliates came from Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Slovenia, Thailand, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and from several universities and state colleges across the Philippines. 

SanD researchers presented 11 papers at the 43th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference at UP Diliman, Quezon City last 25 to 28 June 2025. Additionally, SPP celebrates the United Nations' observance of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and chooses Entangled! as its theme with an addition of a new session topic Quantum Science and Technology for SPP2025. This international conference was one of the largest organized by SPP with 353 participants coming from eight countries. It was highlighted by 25 invited talks by speakers from top research institutions from around the world and a keynote presentation by Professor Hung-Duen Yang of the National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) on Exotic H-field induced multiferroic behaviors in spin-frustrated systems.

The Structure and Dynamics (SanD) research group is currently accepting applications for apprenticeship.

Qualifications:
Undergraduate students should have passed Physics 116 & 126.
Graduate students should have passed at least one graduate core course. 

The ICTP Asian Network School and Workshop on Complex Condensed Systems 2024 was held in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand from 11 to 15 November 2024. The Philippine node of the Asian Network, headed by SanD physicist Cristine Villagonzalo, participated in the event and was composed of scientists and students coming from the University of the Philippines Diliman, University of Santo Tomas, Mapúa University, and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.

SanD congratulates Ana Clarissa Torio for presenting the best Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science poster at the 42nd Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference at the Batangas State University last 3-6 July 2024. Along with SanD physicist Gennevieve Macam, they presented their theoretical study of the electro-optical properties of halide-doped perovskites that may find applications in renewable harvesting technologies.

SanD researchers presented a total of 13 articles and two abstracts at SPP2024, which was attended by participants from 12 countries. It was highlighted by 36 invited talks by speakers from top research institutions from around the world and a keynote presentation by Daniel Holz of the University of Chicago on what the study of gravitational waves reveals about stellar formation and galactic composition.

SanD welcomes its newest faculty member Noel Lamsen. He joins us as an Associate Professor of the National Institute of Physics. He obtained his PhD in Statistical Physics at SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) in Trieste, where he also obtained a research fellowship from November 2020 to February 2021. Dr. Lamsen's current work focuses on the theory of critical phenomena in low-dimensional systems by employing novel methods to obtain exact results. He is also interested in topics related but not limited to disordered systems, percolation and polymers, geometric phase transitions, path integral and second quantization methods for classical stochastic reaction-diffusion processes, density matrix renormalization group, matrix product states and tensor networks, and Monte Carlo simulations.

NIP graduate students who are interested to work with Dr. Lamsen on these topics may contact him by email.

The Asian Network School and Workshop on Complex Condensed Matter Systems 2023 was held on 6-10 November 2023 at the Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam. This year, the Philippine node of the ICTP Asian Network was headed by SanD faculty Cristine Villagonzalo. Joining her were SanD faculty member Gennevieve Macam and PhD student Jerome Acosta. Other Filipino scientists and students from Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, University of the Philippines Diliman, and University of Santo Tomas also attended the event. The lectures and talks covered a variety of topics including flat bands, entanglement, and density functional theory. The next ICTP Asian Network activity will be held in Thailand in 2024.

The Structure and Dynamics Research Program welcomes our new faculty member, Dr. Gennevieve Macam. She is currently an associate professor at the National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan where she also obtained her PhD in Physics. Dr. Macam works on computational materials physics research primarily using first-principles density functional theory for materials research and discovery. Her main interests are in 2D materials, topological materials, Dirac semi-metals, graphene quantum dots, kagome magnets, and multiferroic materials. She has published her work in high-impact factor journals such as Science Advances, Nature Communications, and Physical Review Letters.

Dr. Macam is now accepting applications from current NIP graduate students to join her research subgroup.

SanD graduate students Cleofe Ayang-ang and Robertson Esperanza attended the Asian Quantum Information Science Conference 2019 (AQIS) last 19-23 August 2019 at the Korean Institute of Advanced Study (KIAS) in Seoul. Clei presented her research on the critical features of the Schmidt gap in a long-ranged Kitaev spin chain and Robbie's presentation was on ground state entanglement in an extended Hubbard model. The week long conference included talks on quantum communication, coherence, multi-level quantum teleportation, magic state manipulation, and tutorials on embezzlement of entanglement and qauntum machine learning. Clei was awarded one of the 3rd prizes for best student poster during the conference closing ceremony.

Mary Chris Go (BS Applied Physics) participated in the 6-week 2019 MOST GASE Summer Program on Quantum Technology + Artificial Intelligence organized by the Taiwanese Ministry of Science and Technology Center for Global Affairs and Science Engagement in Taipei this summer. She had her internship at the AIMIA (AI for Medical Image Analysis) Laboratory at the National Taiwan University (NTU). Her work focused on detecting polyps in medical images using YOLOv3 and she was recognized with an Outstanding Performance Award for Best Research. MC also won a GASE Popular Award for the video blog she made about her research life in NTU.

The 2018 ICTP Asian Network School and Workshop on Complex Condensed Matter Systems was hosted by the Suranaree University of Technology last 5-9 November 2018 in Thailand. The Philippines is a participating country of this ICTP Network and scientists and students from Mapúa University, MSU-IIT, UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, and USC attended the event. Lectures and talks covered a variety of topics on complex condensed matter systems that include quantum entanglement, quantum information and many-body interactions, density functional theory, and the applications of synchrotron light. Participants toured the nearby ancient Khmer ruins and the Phimai National Museum. SanD coordinator Cristine Villagonzalo heads the Philippine node of the network and the next 2019 School and Workshop will take place at the National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman.

Former SanD student Paul Ang participated in the Second Training Workshop on Regional Climate Modeling for Southeast Asia at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi last 22-26 October 2018. Organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment in South-East Asia (CORDEX-SEA), the workshop included training sessions for the RegCM4 regional climate model and lectures on the latest progress of CORDEX-SEA. Paul and his groupmates' presentation that matched land use models with observed data was cited as the best presentation of the workshop.

SanD researchers presented 23 papers at the 36th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference in Puerto Princesa City last 6 to 9 June 2018. This international conference was one of the largest organized by SPP with 369 participants coming from 11 countries. The sessions were highlighted by talks on frontier topics by 30 invited speakers coming from strong academic and research institutions, several of whom have ties with SanD members. The online Proceedings of the SPP published 214 open-access articles and another 50 extended abstracts were presented as posters. SanD physicists Francis Paraan and Cristine Villagonzalo played crucial organizational roles in the conference and SanD alumni Marienette Vega and Rona Barbarona actively participated as SPP Councilors.

The poster presentation of Daniel Marquez  was recognized as the best technical poster at the recently concluded DOST-SEI ASTHRDP Graduate Scholars' Conference held last 18-19 June 2018. His presentation on the magnetic interaction in a two-dimensional electron gas is part of his MS thesis work supervised by Cristine Villagonzalo. Five other MS Physics students from SanD also presented their research in this annual conference: Jan Viloria (molecular dynamics simulations of alloys), Raymart Canoy (quenched Kitaev chains), Amancio Manceras (Penna model and genetic diversity), Mykhal Mangada (tensor network image classifiers), and Jammy Guinid (Penna model with mutations). In line with this year's theme of Big Data for Big Science, talks were given on the applications of data science in industry, agriculture, medicine, climate change, and other fields.

The ICTP Asian Network on Condensed Matter and Complex Systems links scientists of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste and several research groups in Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. The network node in the Philippines is coordinated by SanD faculty Cristine Villagonzalo and involves physicists from MSU-IIT, UP Diliman, and UP Los Baños. SanD members were actively involved in three network activities this year and look forward to further participation in the following years.

Materials Science and Engineering masters student Meltion Chiong III was one of the poster presenters in the 9th Electronic Structure and Processes at Molecular-based Interfaces (ESPMI9) Conference held last 8-10 November 2017 at the National University of Singapore. His research employs density functional theory to describe the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide by the metalloorganic molecule cobalt-salen. The conference was jointly organized by the the Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics of the National University of Singapore. The conference was devoted to frontier topics in the field of molecular and contact interfaces, charge transport, morphology, and the spectroscopy of organic semiconductors, perovskite photovoltaic cells, and two-dimensional materials.

SanD graduate student Alexandra Santos-Putungan participated in the 9th Conference of the Asian Consortium on Computational Materials Science (ACCMS-9) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last 8-11 August 2017. Alex presented a research poster highlighting her studies on first-principles simulations of carbon monoxide bonding on boron atomic clusters. The ACCMS was organized to promote research and development among scientists in the region who work on computational studies of novel and advanced materials.

Graduate student Meliton Chiong III completed the 2017 ILE-NIP Summer School in Physics and Laser Engineering held last 24-30 July 2017 at the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE) of Osaka University in Japan. The summer school is a seven-day program and the participants attended several lectures on laser technologies and nuclear fusion. The program also included a two-day laboratory immersion experience in which the students were accommodated at one of the ILE Research Groups on Laser Advanced Materials, Laser Plasma Radiation, Target Materials, and Theory for Laser Plasma.

SanD PhD student Neris Sombillo presented her research at the 6th Adiabatic Quantum Computing Conference (AQC 2017) held in Tokyo, Japan last 26-29 June 2017. This is the first time that the AQC conference was held in Asia. The conference attracts researchers who work on the frontiers of adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing and this year's key panelists include Seth Lloyd, Daniel Lidar, Edward Farhi, Helmut Katzgraber, Norio Murakami, Hartmut Neven, and Paul Warburton. Several companies that do research and development in quantum computing such as D-Wave, Google, and NASA also participated in the conference. In the conference poster session Neris presented her dissertation research on the simulation of fixed-point quantum searches in an Ising spin system.

Last 25 June 2017 SanD students Cleofe Ayang-ang, Paul Ang, and Ian Felismino attended the first event of the "How To Be You Po?" series of talks organized by Women Who Code Manila at the National Museum Planetarium. The series invites women from the science and technology industry to share their experiences and success stories to inspire others to pursue careers in science and technology. This first iteration of the series celebrates women who work in the space sciences and keynote talks were given by data scientist and astrophysicist Reinabelle Reyes and Diwata microsatellite engineer Kaye Verjel.
Photo credit: Reno Cerbolles 2017.

SanD members presented a total of 18 papers covering several topics in theoretical and computational physics at the 35th Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference held in Cebu City last 6-10 June 2017. A total of 154 contributed papers and 15 invited talks were presented at the conference, which was attended by participants from ten countries including the Philippines. SanD hosted four invited speakers, Constantinos Constantinou, Manas Kulkarni, Shawn Pollard, and Raul Santos. SanD physicists Cristine Villagonzalo and Francis Paraan played important organizational roles as the SPP President and Secretary General, respectively. SanD alumnae Karla Belisario-Rivero and Marienette Vega also contributed much to the success of SPP 2017 as members of the Conference Secretariat.

DOST-SEI Director Josette Biyo and DOST-ASTHRDP scholars from the NIP SanD and Theoretical Physics research groups.

SanD DOST-ASTHRDP scholars Jan Philippe Sambo and Raymart Jay Canoy presented their work at the 2nd International Science Graduate Scholars' Conference at the PICC last 24-25 May 2017. This annual conference is organized by the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) to provide a venue for its scholars to share their thesis and dissertation research with other scholars, business and industry partners, and other stakeholders of the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program (ASTHRDP). In the conference poster session Jan presented his results on the time evolution of correlation functions in the ground state of a quenched XY model spin chain and Raymart presented his calculations of block purity in Kitaev chains with long-range interactions.

Last 24-26 May 2017 three SanD students presented their MS thesis research at the 12th Siam Physics Congress in Rayong, Thailand. The conference is jointly organized by the Thai Physics Society and Kasetsart University. Meliton Chiong III was cited as one of the best student presenters for his talk on a density functional theory study of bonding between carbon dioxide molecules and cobalt salen complexes. Amancio II Manceras presented his research on the advantage of genetic diversity in a Penna model of populations and Jan Fronimarc Villoria discussed his molecular dynamics simulations of the mechanical properties of copper-silver alloys.