Contributing to sustainability through knowledge generation and dissemination at DSLU Manila

Universities generally make their most valuable contributions to society through the generation of novel ideas that yield better solutions to unsolved problems, and through dissemination of such knowledge to students through both formal and informal channels. It is in this vital role in the integrated management of knowledge as a public good than any respectable university finds its main reason for being. This is a challenge which academic institutions in the Philippines have started to take on in recent years, although there remains much ground to cover; even now, publication rates in even the top-tier Philippine universities still lag behind their counterparts in the ASEAN region by one or two orders of magnitude. Thus there is clearly a need for Filipino researchers to make meaningful contributions to the global knowledge economy, or, in the words of 2010 Chemistry Nobel Laureate Richard Heck, to “invade the international frontiers of scientific exchanges.”

One of the foremost goals motivating research at De La Salle University in Manila is to provide models and avenues for the stewardship of the environment. For this reason, in its centennial year, DLSU is poised to prioritize specific areas of research, including sustainability, environment, and energy. The selection of these prioritized research areas were made on the basis of the significant research output of its faculty. As part of the annual University Week events, the University Research Coordination Office (URCO) at De La Salle University is organizing a series of talks on Feb. 16, to disseminate faculty research on the environment. The talks are organized to focus on contemporary environmental concerns examined by some of the institution’s leading researchers. The talks are to be given using an interactive format to provide the audience opportunities to engage in discussion with these researchers. First, there is a forum focusing on environmental impact assessment consisting of talks by Dr. Susan Gallardo, Dr. Edgar Vallar and Dr. Jose Carandang IV (of DLSU’s Chemical Engineering, Physics and Biology Departments, respectively). Their topics include industrial waste management, air quality and urban sustainability. Then, Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan and Dr. Carmen Lagman (both from the Biology Department) will conduct a forum on environmental sustainability, focusing specifically on managing the sustainability of marine ecosystems in the face of climate change. Finally, the forum on sustainable energy will feature lectures by Dr. Alvin Culaba (of the Mechanical Engineering Department), Dr. Luis Razon and Dr. Raymond Tan (both from the Chemical Engineering Department). These talks will be about innovative systems for the production of biomass-based fuels, topics which have been dealt with in past Star Science columns, and which will surely be the subject of more articles in the near future. In particular, these talks will discuss the implications of alternative energy production on such current sustainability issues as climate change, land use and water stress.

Students and faculty who are interested in pursuing research projects in the areas covered by these talks are especially enjoined to participate in the discussions. Further details of these talks, which are open to the public, may be found at www.dlsu.edu.ph. (Interested parties may contact Charisse Tan or Nelly Ann Cruz of URCO at 534-4611 local 164).

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Dr. Madelene Sta. Maria is currently an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of De La Salle University in Manila, and is the director of the University Research Coordination Office. She has handled courses on human development, culture and psychology, and applied social psychology. She obtained her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of the Philippines at Diliman, and received her doctorate in Psychology from the University of Cologne in Germany. Her researches on adolescent development have been published in both local and international edited volumes and journals. Aside from her involvement in researches on the Filipino youth, she is also engaged in interdisciplinary projects on the development of computational models for human emotions. She may be contacted via e-mail ([email protected]).

Dr. Raymond R. Tan is a university fellow and full professor of chemical engineering at De La Salle University. He is also the current director of that institution’s Center for Engineering and Sustainable Development Research. His main field of research is process systems engineering (PSE), which focuses on developing computational techniques to improve the efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes. He is the author of more than 70 published and forthcoming articles in ISI-indexed journals in the fields of chemical, environmental and energy engineering. He is member of the editorial boards of the journals Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, Philippine Science Letters and Sustainable Technologies, Systems & Policies, and is co-editor of the forthcoming book “Recent Advances in Sustainable Process Design and Optimization.” He is also the recipient of multiple awards from the National Academy of Science and Technology and the National Research Council of the Philippines. He may be contacted via e-mail ([email protected].).