CS 2024 Gawad Tsanselor Awardees

The University of the Philippines – Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) congratulates four of its nominees selected as recipients of the 2024 Gawad Tsanselor awards, UPD’s most prestigious distinction given to selected members of the UPD community who demonstrated exemplary work in their respective fields.
Dr. Michael Francis Ian Vega II of the National Institute of Physics (NIP) will be recognized as one of the Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Guro awardees. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics with a focus on relativity and gravitational physics at the University of Florida. After joining NIP in 2016, he established the NIP Gravity Group. Dr. Vega was also named Outstanding Young Scientist for Theoretical Physics by the National Academy of Science and Technology in 2019 and one of Asia’s Rising Scientists by the Asian Scientist Magazine in 2021.

Lovely Andeo, a Physics undergraduate from NIP, will be one of the awardees for the Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Mag-aaral distinction. She is a member of the NIP Data and Computation Research Group headed by Dr. Reinabelle Reyes, which pursues research on data-driven astrophysics and computational physics. Andeo is also the founder of Student for the Exploration and Development of Space in the Philippines (SEDSPH), a nationwide organization that promotes space exploration to students.

The National Academic Research Fleet (NARFleet), will be one of the two Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Programang Pang-Ekstensiyon awardees. Established and managed by the Marine Science Institute (MSI) and other partner universities, the NARFleet is a group of vessels essential to the Institute’s research, academic activities, and capacity building. The NARFleet currently has five vessels used for coastal and seasonal open ocean expeditions, and activities such as seismic surveys and oceanographic and plastics research.

Joel Ballesteros of the Institute of Chemistry (IC) will be recognized as one of the two Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging REPS awardees. He is an analyst of the Analytical Services Laboratory, a teaching and instructional laboratory for the Institute’s chemical instrumentation courses and other chemistry courses where instrumentation is required. As a researcher of IC, Ballesteros collaborates with other researchers and faculty of the Institute to work on studies that involve foodomics and healthcare-associated infections.