The National Science Complex: Its vital role in Philippine higher education and scientific R&D

The National Science Complex (NSC) is being completed to provide a nurturing and enabling environment to Filipino scientists, researchers, and students in the basic and applied sciences and mathematics. Its successful operation is also foreseen to bridge the gap between risky but potentially rewarding scientific research and development programs that are being pursued in Philippine universities and the need of the private sector and other government agencies for faster returns to their precious investments.

The College of Science (CS), UP Diliman manages the 21.9-hectare NSC for the University of the Philippines. The NSC was established by virtue of Executive Order 583 that was issued by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Dec. 8, 2006. The Philippine government allocated a total of P1.7 billion to complete the infrastructure requirements of the NSC and to acquire precision equipment for scientific R&D. The funds were part of the UP budgets for 2006 (P500 million), 2008 (P500 million) and 2009 (P700 million). The singular efforts of Congressman Luis Villafuerte were crucial in the establishment of the NSC.

New buildings are being constructed for the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB), National Institute of Physics (NIP), Institute of Biology (IB), Institute of Chemistry (IC), Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM), Institute of Mathematics (I-Math) and the CS Administration Office, while existing buildings for the Marine Science Institute (MSI), Natural Sciences Research Institute (NSRI), National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS) and CS Library are being refurbished and upgraded. Construction of the new NSC road network started in March 2008 and completion of all major new buildings is expected by the first quarter of 2012.

The CS was first created as an autonomous college of UP Diliman on Oct. 6, 1983 during the term of then UP president Edgardo Angara. Its mission is to generate new scientific knowledge that allows us to understand more accurately the inner workings of the natural world and to train the next generation of scientists and researchers of the country.

Today, CS employs a total of 149 Ph.D. faculty members and four university researchers with Ph.D. degrees. They are serving the academic needs of 170 Ph.D., 588 M.S. and 1550 B.S. students. When it started in 1983, CS employed less than 40 regular Ph.D. faculty members. Between June 1983 and April 2010, it produced a total of 337 Ph.D., 1,233 M.S. and 6,165 B.S. graduates. Its Ph.D. graduates, in particular, are now holding key academic, research, and managerial positions in leading Philippine universities, government agencies and the private sector.

The NSC is expected to attract scientists and researchers from different disciplines and allow them to work within close proximity of each other, thereby promoting interdisciplinary research collaboration. The complex challenges confronting our country today are multidimensional in nature and they require inclusive interdisciplinary solutions that are best found through scientific thinking as well as fruitful collaboration and constructive engagement among and between scientists, researchers, scholars, humanists, and artists.

According to UNESCO Science Report 2010, the Philippines (with one researcher per 12,345 population in 2009) has a researcher population density that is lower than Singapore (one per 164), Thailand (one per 3,215), Indonesia (one per 6,172) and Vietnam (one per 8695). We hope to overcome our relative disadvantage by concentrating many of our available researchers within the NSC to reach a local critical density that favors greater research productivity.

CS scientists and researchers are currently investigating a wide range of research topics in the basic and applied sciences and mathematics. NIP physicists are developing new nanometer-size photonic devices, novel measurement techniques as well as new theories and methodologies that would elucidate the physical world of extreme scales and complexity. NIGS researchers are in different parts of the country studying the material composition and structural dynamics of our archipelagic geology, while MSI scientists are investigating the behavior of marine ecosystems as well as the biomedical properties of marine organisms to generate new knowledge that is invaluable in our efforts to incorporate sustainability into our national economic development programs.

Scientists from the IB and IESM are investigating the possible impacts of key direct (e.g. climate change) and indirect (e.g. human population growth) drivers of ecological change on terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services. IC and NSRI researchers are analyzing the properties of locally found natural products for their potential medicinal value, while their NIMBB colleagues are studying algae as a possible fuel source, analyzing fluorescent proteins and gene sequences of bacterial pathogens, or characterizing the molecular composition of abaca. At the same time, I-Math researchers are exploring different ways of improving the language of science or looking for new applications of mathematics in finance, actuarial science, and information science.

The NSC is the first of its kind in the country and the ability of our government to operate it successfully is a credible gauge not only of the seriousness of its commitment to promote science and technology but also of its present technical readiness and managerial expertise to embark on high-impact, long-term scientific endeavors of national importance.

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Caesar Saloma is the current Dean of the College of Science. He is a professor of physics and a member of the National Academy Science and Technology. E-mail him at [email protected].