Angel De Dios Visits Chemistry Department
Angel De Dios (BS Chemistry 1985) visited the Chemistry Department in July for three weeks. Angel is currently an Associate Professor at Georgetown University where he is also Director of Undergraduate Studies (http://bouman.chem.georgetown.edu/). This was his first visit to the Philippines since he left for the US in 1988 for his PhD studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he graduated in 1992. Angel stayed at Alingal Hall (near Cervini and Eliazo).
Angel gave a research seminar
to Seniors and graduate students last 08 July 2004. The research seminar
was about NMR Studies of Antimalarial Drugs. Drug-drug and drug-heme interactions
have been studied employing standard NMR techniques and ab initio methods.
The use of NMR longitudinal relaxation times and chemical shifts, interactions
between heme and antimalarial drugs were described. Self-association of
the antimalarial drugs has also been examined by using a combination of
both theoretical and experimental methods. NMR studies in the solid state
that provides an alternative mechanism behind chloroquine-heme interactions
was also presented. This makes it an attractive target in the discovery
of new anti-malarial drugs.
Charisma, anyone?: Angel de Dios giving a talk about Georgetown
Last 13 July 2004, Angel gave a recruitment talk for Georgetown and also provided an insider's perspective of graduate school in chemistry in the United States. He introduced the wide array of research topics of the Chemistry Faculty of Georgetown ranging from materials science, drug design, inorganic synthesis, to molecular simulations. Angel and gave stories of how Ateneo alumni and Georgetown PhD students Richard Abendan (BS Chem 1998) and Mikay Paguio (BS Chem 2000) are doing. He elaborated the sights at and near Georgetown. Angel gave out reasons why one should choose Georgetown: scholarships and other awards. He gave out T-shirts too! He was able to give more information to current Ateneo graduate students after the talk when they went to Chocolate Kiss in UP for dinner.
Angel was able to get-together with his friends in the Ateneo and was able to attend the "despedida" for Mang Ric (see related article). Of course, he got to see his other friends from elementary and high school.
One of the highlights of Angel's visit was the hero's welcome accorded to him by the town officials and citizens of Paete, Laguna. Angel has been donating to the Paete schools and the money has been used in the procurement of computers. In gratitude, Angel was given tribute in three Paete elementary schools. He was welcomed by bands and flag-waving school children. There were feasts after all his speeches and Angel was overwhelmed by all these.
Recently, Angel was one of the recipients for the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in Georgetown (http://www3.georgetown.edu/college/faculty/awards/2004.html) and promptly donated to Paete the cash prize that went with the award. Much more recently, he together with colleagues was awarded a research grant for research on malaria (http://www.georgetown.edu/college/news/cwr/March0405.html).
