Mr. Mart Benson M. Castillo and Mr. Jomuel A. Velandres (both fifth-year chemical engineering students) are two of three recipients for this year’s BPI-DOST Science Awards for UPLB. The awarding ceremonies were held at the Makiling Garden Pavilion on March 8, 2011. This is the first year that all three awardees come from the College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT). The third recipient is Mr. William Jared Barker, from the Agricultural Engineering Department. The BPI Science awards are given annually by the BPI-Foundation to exceptional science and engineering students from BPI Foundation’s ten partner-universities nationwide. Students considered for the awards are evaluated based on academic performance and quality of the thesis research projects.
Mr. Castillo’s research was on the “Electrochemical Decolorization and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) Reduction of Colored-Paper-Manufacturing Wastewater. Mr. Velandres’ project on the “Selective Recovery of High Purity Silver from a Local Goldsmelting Wastewater” went on to win First Runner-up for the Best Project of the Year. Both awardees did their thesis research under the supervision of Dr. Catalino G. Alfafara as thesis adviser, and Dr. Veronica P. Migo as Co-adviser. Engr. Jerico R. Aguila and Engr. Maria Christina V. Mahilum also served as members of their thesis advisory committee.
This is the second year in a row that students from Chemical Engineering were recipients of the BPI-DOST Science Awards for UPLB. This is also the second year in a row that Chemical Engineering landed among the top three prizes in the BPI-DOST Best Project of the Year Award. Congratulations awardees !
