On being a scientist in one's home country

(First of three parts)

(Delivered during the second Convention of Future Scientists last Feb. 27 at De La Salle University Manila)

On Feb. 20, 2001 I gave a lecture entitled “My Expectations of the Filipino Scientist” after receiving the first Concepcion Dadufalza Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Faculty Center of the University of the Philippines Diliman. The Dadufalza Award was established by the University of the Philippines System to keep alive the ideals of Professor Concepcion Dadufalza, a teacher of English who influenced several generations of UP Diliman students during her long and memorable career as a public servant. Fortunately, she was able to attend the first awarding program. Unfortunately, I did not become one of her students. Professor Dadufalza passed away in December 2004.

My talk appeared in the newsletter DOST SignPost, Volume 20, Number 8 (August 2002 issue) and the Diliman Review, a journal that is jointly published by the College of Arts and Languages, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy and College of Science of UP Diliman. An electronic copy could also be downloaded from the website, bahaykuboresearch.net.

In my 2001 Dadufalza lecture, I mentioned a number of deliverables that I expected (and continue to expect) Filipino scientists and researchers to deliver in the course of pursuing scientific research in our own country.

I expect every Filipino scientist to work toward building a culture of science in our society. He or she would help establish a rich scientific tradition that all Filipinos can be proud of. Excellence in the basic and applied science and mathematics is about performing well and consistently. Excellence does not become a way of life in a society that does not possess a sense of history regarding the past contributions of its scientists, researchers and technologists. Scientific tradition is forged by generations of individuals ceaselessly pushing the limits of scientific knowledge.

Scientific tradition does not emerge simply by chance. It results from conscious, coordinated and sustained effort by many sectors of society — from the private and non-governmental organizations to the government. Among these sectors, the academe plays the most crucial role in the task of tradition building. Academics are in a unique position since they are not beholden to short-term interests nor encumbered by the profit motive. They form the frontline in the training of future generations of scientists and intellectuals of society.

Scientific research is not easy to perform in our country since it requires a support infrastructure that allows effective recruitment of young talent as well as efficient procurement and delivery of research equipment and materials. Our society is still in the process of building the foundations of such an infrastructure. Doing research here is still like wading through shallow muddy waters — one small step forward already requires huge amounts of energy and momentum.

(To be continued)

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Caesar Saloma has a Ph.D. in Physics, and is a professor at the National Institute of Physics, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman. He is presently the Dean of the College of Science and is a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology. He is the recipient of the 2004 Galileo Galilei Award of the International Commission for Optics and the 2008 ASEAN Outstanding Scientist and Technologist Award. He also received the Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award (Higher Education category) in 2007. E-mail him at [email protected].