Mikhail Solon, a senior student of BS Physics, won the Best Project of the Year Award for his project “Analysis of Selected Non-Linear and Non-Local Systems.”

His project has been published in Physics Letters A and Physics Review, both international publications whose articles are being reviewed by renowned physicists throughout the world before they are printed.

Solon would be taking home a cash incentive of P50,000 and a P200,000 research grant, courtesy of DOST, and a trophy from BPI.

His work attempts to explain the orbits of electrons in heavier atoms as well as describe plasma and heavier ions.

Last year’s winner was Carla Gisela Ysabel Concepcion, a senior student of BS Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, for "Cloning of Alcyonium Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a Potential Tracker of Cancer Metastasis.”

Stephen Co of Ateneo de Manila University ranked first runner-up this year for his work entitled “Design and Construction of a Synthetic Coconut Cadang Cadang Viroid cDNA.” He would be receiving P30,000 cash prize from DOST and a trophy from BPI.

Winning second runner-up is Marvin Masalunga, also from UP-Diliman, for his project “Genetic Diversity of Philippine Trichomonas vaginalis Isolates Using the 5.8S Ribosomal RNA Gene.” He will be taking home a cash prize of P10,000 and a trophy from DOST and BPI, respectively.

The three bested 27 others from 10 partner-universities throughout the country as the BPI-DOST joint undertaking aims to recognize and provide incentives to graduating students in selected colleges/universities who excel in specialized fields of science, namely: mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science and biology.

DOST-Science Education Institute Director Dr. Ester B. Ogena challenged the students to prove that they could excel in their fields of expertise and become the future scientists and engineers of the country.

“We are a nation of achievers and our students here are crystal-clear evidence of that. Our intellectual resources are so teeming that it could skyrocket the country’s economy to accelerated growth,” she said.

Ogena said the DOST is also willing to support students who would want to take their studies to another level by entering into graduate studies.

“We are implementing the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development and the Engineering Research and Development for Technology Programs aimed at helping improve the country’s global competitiveness and capability to innovate through alternative approaches on HRD in S&T and to accelerate the production of high-level human resources needed for S&T activities particularly in the area of R&D,” she said.

Ogena said that takers of these scholarship programs are entitled to a monthly stipend, book allowance, transportation allowance for those from far-away provinces, group insurance, and thesis or dissertation allowance. (30)