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IMSP Hosts Several Public Lectures |
The public lecture by Dr. Amador C. Muriel titled "Folding Water - The Search for a Quantum Theory of Turbulence" will be held today, Thursday, 1:30 p.m. at the PSLH-B. This is the third of a series of public lectures this semester on physics and physics education, sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics. We are very honoured to have hosted these lectures as we attempt to strengthen the research capability of the Institute, through visiting professorships, lectures by eminent scientists and mathematicians, research discussions and collaborations, and others, in order for us to give meaning and significance to our identity as a National Center of Excellence in the Basic Sciences.
The first lecture was last July 16 given by the pioneering team of Drs. Christopher and Maria Victoria Bernido, President and Principal, respectively, of the Research Center for Theoretical Physics and the Central Visayas Institute Foundation in Jagna, Bohol. This physicist-researcher-educator couple was conferred the prestigious Gawad Haydee Yorac this year. Their partnership to build a nation through science, research and a new innovative method of teaching founded on excellence and values was the main focus of their lectures titled "Functional Strategies in Science and Mathematics Education" and "Learning Physics as One Nation".
The second was last July 17 by Dr. Romel D. Gomez, Professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of Maryland, College Park, and who was our Balik Scientist last year. In his lecture titled "Visualizing and Manipulating Objects at the Nanometer Length Scale," Dr. Gomez provided an overview of nanotechnology from the point of view of scanning probe microscopy, which was seminal in advancing the field of nanotechnology. The DOST has identified the Physics Division as a recipient of a hefty grant for the development of the materials physics laboratory through the acquisition of new equipment and facilities that will enable it to fabricate organic and inorganic advanced materials such as conducting polymers and advanced ceramics, and to enable it to conduct further research on nanostructure-based sensors for environmental sensing. We recognize the support that Dr. Gomez has provided for this project.
The third lecturer, Dr. Muriel is the co-founder of a new field of physics called Quantum Turbulence, which he considers to be his main contribution to physics. His talk entitled ?Folding Water: The Search for a Quantum Theory of Turbulence" is also the title of a new book that he co-wrote with Ninotchka Rosca, a well-known Filipino author and journalist.
This event also serves to launch the book here in UPLB, which was first launched at the Manila Hotel last July 8. The book costs 400 pesos in the bookstores, but for UPLB constituents, today during the lecture, it will be sold for only 100 pesos.
From his own words, the book is a "scientific autobiography that focuses on the human and personal side of creating and writing about a new theory". The book "can become an inspiration for Filipino students and dreamers who wish to do science."
Dr. Muriel holds a PhD degree in Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and is currently a visiting professor of the Max Planck Institute of Physics for Complex Systems, Germany and the National Institute of Physics in UP Diliman. A corresponding member of the National Academy of Science and Technology, Dr. Muriel is in the country to continue his NIP-based research initiatives in Theoretical Physics under the Balik-Scientist Program of the Department of Science and Technology. He was here in UPLB last October 2008 as plenary speaker in the National Symposium on Science and Technology (NSST 2008) sponsored by DOST, the PCASTRD Scholars Association and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics, where he talked about "Extending the Molecular Theory of Turbulence to Graduate Engineering Curricula and Applications".
Dr. Muriel was Founder and President of Data Transport Systems, a 20-year old IT consultancy firm with activities in New York, Manila, and Geneva. The company has served several United Nations agencies and other non-profit international organizations in Vienna, Copenhagen, Geneva and New York using small and large distributed databases.
He was Director of the Center for Fluid Dynamics, founded by World Laboratory, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dr. Muriel is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, the World Federation of Scientists based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He has received visiting professor appointments from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, the Yale University, Leiden University, Montana State University, the Franklin Institute in Philadephia, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA.
Dr. Muriel has published over 36 papers in international journals, and was included in the American Men and Women of Science in 1970, and the Marquis? Who?s Who.
Quite importantly, Dr.Muriel is awarded by the Jaycees as Outstanding Filipino in 1990. He might have spent quite so many years abroad for the improvement of science, but Dr. Muriel?s heart remains in the Philippines. He is truly one outstanding Filipino Scientist. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 August 2009 03:31 )
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