QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES - The Iuvenis Orbis Geological Fraternity (IOGF) continues its mission of stimulating scientific interest and promoting leadership opportunities for the students of UP-NIGS with the successful conduct of the 2025 UP Geology Merit Award (UPGMA) and the NIGS Lecture Series during the Second Semester of Academic Year 2024-2025.
Five UP-NIGS students were officially named awardees of the UPGMA, joining a list of meritorious undergraduate and graduate students who have distinguished themselves in their academic achievements, leadership qualities, and service to the community and the science of geology since the inception of the UPGMA program in AY 2002-2003.
IOGF also oversaw the successful conduct of eight NIGS Lecture Series during the Second Semester. This semester’s lectures saw successful partnerships with UP-NIGS laboratories and geological organizations, continuing the new direction taken by the initiative to partner with and expand its reach to more geology students and enthusiasts.
Bannering these lectures were the successful book launches of Discoveries: The stories we leave behind and Atlas of coccolithophores in Philippine marginal seas and collaborations with esteemed scientists and researchers from all over the world.
The list of NIGS Lecture Series and book launches are as follows:
66th NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. Keiko Hattori and Dr. Jeffrey Hedenquist)
- Geological and tectonic setting for high-grade epithermal gold deposits: Potential areas for exploration (Hattori)
- Report mineralogy, texture, morphology + zonation and overprints (not "advanced argillic"...) (Hedenquist)
67th NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. M. Bayani Cardenas)
- Ridge to reef volcanic hydrogeology: Submarine groundwater in the world's most biodiverse coasts
68th NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. Manuel Pubellier)
- The fate of basins between Sundaland and the Philippine Sea Plate
69th NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. Mei-Fu Zhou)
- Unconventional resources of Scandium (Sc) associated with weathered mafic-ultramafic rocks
70th NIGS Lecture Series (Discoveries: The stories we leave behind)
- Book launching of Discoveries (edited by Obet and Yasmin Tan)
- Two copies of Discoveries were donated to the UP-NIGS Library by IOGF
- Discovery Culture and Trends (Ciceron A. Angeles Jr. MSc.)
- Discoveries: Chincillones Polymetallic Deposit (Porphyry-Epithermal; >1 Bt potential; active resource delineation), San Juan, Argentina (Dr. Renato Bobis)
- Journey to a Discovery: The Merlin Mo-Re Story (Florinio Lazo MSc.)
71st NIGS Lecture Series (Maileen P. Rondal and the Nannoworks Laboratory)
- Book launch of Atlas of coccolithophores in Philippine marginal seas (Dr. Alyssa M. Peleo-Alampay, Dr. Allan Gil S. Fernando, Jaan Ruy Conrad P. Nogot, John Warner M. Carag, Dorothy Joyce D. Marquez)
- Unearthing knowledge: The National Museum of the Philippines as a catalyst for geoscience education and engagement (Rondal)
72nd NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. Ruth Esther Delina-Agillon)
- From rocks to wastes: Tracing the fate of chromium in mining-impacted lateritic environments
73rd NIGS Lecture Series (Dr. Massimo Chiaradia)
- Time is the most valuable thing porphyry deposit can spend
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With the successful conduct and increase in scope of these flagship events, IOGF hopes to continue making its presence known as a leading figure in science communication within the UP-NIGS community and beyond.