2 Pinoys awarded PhD research scholarships

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines — Four doctoral (PhD) students, two of them Filipinos, have been awarded PhD research scholarships by a regional center of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO).

The new beneficiaries of the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) research scholarships are Joseph Angelus Palomar of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Region IV, Rowena Gadi of the University of the Philippines Los Baños-College of Forestry and Natural Resources (UPLB-CFNR), Hari Sulistiyowati of the University of Jember and Birno Budi Santoso of the State University of Papua, both from Indonesia.

The four are all pursuing their PhD degrees at UPLB as SEAMEO SEARCA scholars, with Palomar and Gadi working on their PhD in Forestry, Sulistiyowati her doctorate in Botany, and Santoso his PhD in Agricultural Chemistry.

The PhD Research Scholarship program is one of the center’s regular offerings, which was instituted in 2005 to provide PhD students the opportunity to use the resources and facilities available at SEARCA and its network of universities for their research, as well as produce quality research paper for publication. SEARCA launched its Graduate Study Program in 1968-69.

The research scholarship program is open to all Southeast Asian graduate students studying at UPLB; Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand; Universitas Gadjah Mada, Institute Pertanian Bogor, both in Indonesia; and Universiti Pertanian Malaysia — the universities covered by the University Consortium initiated by SEARCA in 1989.