PSF, Smart support int'l physics confab in Bohol

CEBU, Philippines - Over 40 international and local members of the scientific academe gathered in the municipality of Jagna in Bohol for a 4-day workshop on Theoretical Physics in an event organized by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees Dr. Christopher Bernido and Dr. M. Victoria Carpio-Bernido with support from the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).

The 7th Jagna International Workshop: Analysis of Fractional Stochastic Processes: Advances and Applications was organized by the Research Center for Theoretical Physics of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF), a school owned by renowned Bernido Physicists and Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) advocates.

Smart provided connectivity during the entire duration of the event, allowing one of the speakers, Ralf Metzler, to make his presentation via Skype from Potsdam, Germany.  This was the first time ever that Skype was used to accommodate speakers who cannot make it to the conference.

"We are proud to be part of this conference that gathered some of the best minds in the academe for extensive scientific discussions in the field of Physics.  We believe that learning should never end, especially so for educators," said Ramon R. Isberto, head of Smart Public Affairs.

"PSF has always been supportive of initiatives that seek to promote learning.  This workshop is a forum for the global prime movers in the field of Physics to learn from each other," said Esther Santos, president of PSF.

"We are thankful to both PSF and Smart for supporting our workshop.  Their financial and technological support has enabled us to successfully conduct the workshop," said Dr. Chris Bernido, who with Dr. Marivic, has been organizing the workshop since its inception. The couple is also behind the innovative CVIF-Dynamic Learning Program, an innovative teaching approach which PSF and Smart also supports.

During the conference, there were presentations of recent research results as well as review and pedagogical talks with graduate students and young Ph.Ds as the target audience. Three full days were allotted to scientific sessions.  The fourth day was for informal discussions and tours of selected sites of Bohol.  As in the past, the informal nature of the workshop was meant to foster active interaction among speakers and participants so that possible research targets could be clearly defined.

This was the second time that PSF and Smart supported the conference.  Other sponsors were the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (Italy), Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation of Germany, the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Governor Edgardo M. Chatto of Bohol, Rep. Arthur Yap of the 3rd District of Bohol, and Mayor Fortunato Abrenilla of the Municipality of Jagna.

Speakers included Rommel Bacabac of University of San Carlos, Cebu (Microrheology), Swee Cheng Lim of Multimedia University Malaysia (Multifractional Processes), Ralf Metzler of the University of Potsdam in Germany (Anomalous Diffusion), Christopher Monterola of Fusionopolis, Singapore (Complex Systems), Sithi Muniandy of the University of Malaysia (Organic Semiconductors), Georgiy Shevchenk?  of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev, Ukraine (Financial Mathematics), Jose Luis da Silva of University of Madeira in Portugal (Infinite Dimensional Analysis), Herry P Suryawan of Sanata Dharma University of Indonesia (Fractional Path Integrals), Ludwig Streit of Universit?t Bielefeld in Germany (Fractional Polymers), and Frederik W. Wiegel of University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Biological Stochastic Models).

The Bernidos's CVIF-DLP, which is also being supported by PSF and Smart, is a non-traditional teaching framework that is geared towards developing each child to his or her fullest potential based on scientific study.  Using the same curriculum of the Department of Education, it is designed to improve basic education given the country's multiple socioeconomic and cultural constraints. PSF and Smart have been helping the Bernidos propagate this innovative and effective teaching method all over the country to benefit more schools.  (FREEMAN)