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Faculty

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Rico C. Ancog, Ph.D.
Dean, Professor 1, UP Scientist I

Rico Ancog is a professor and UP Scientist I at the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM) of the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB).

He serves as the Head of the Ecosystem Services and Environmental Policy (ESEP) Research Laboratory of SESAM, while also working as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM), a Web of Science-indexed journal based in UPLB. He likewise sits as the Board Secretary of the Philippine Network of Educators on Environment (PNEE) and as District Chair of the Environment Protection Committee of Rotary District 3820.

With specialization in environmental science and environmental economics, his research projects are focused on systematic understanding of socio-ecological systems for efficient resource conservation and resilience. He has served as a consultant of National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the initial development of the Philippine Mangrove Systems Account under the program, Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES). Currently, he also contributed in the development of a Supplemental Manual on the integration of DRRM/CCA in the project evaluation system of NEDA Board’s Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), as well as in the analysis of the efficiency, financing gap, and potential funding sources of the Coastal Resources Management (CRM) programs of selected 24 local government units (LGUs) around the country.

He finished his PhD in 2011 in UPLB complemented with a sandwich program in Nagoya University. He was awarded the Dr. Elvira O. Tan Award for Best Published Paper (2017) and the Asian Young Professional on Water Research (2009). He was recently awarded as one of the Outstanding Young Scientists of 2019.

Email: [email protected]

Contreras
Antonio P. Contreras, Ph.D.
Professor 1

Dr. Antonio P. Contreras is a political scientist who specializes in political theory and analysis.  His career spans a broad spectrum not only in terms of discipline but also in terms of his epistemological and methodological groundings.

His academic career has been a diverse array of areas that span the entire spectrum of the disciplines, from the very mathematical to the very post-modern.  His master’s thesis in UPLB was on mathematical modelling of forest land-use allocation problems involving multiple stakeholders with competing goals.  He taught hard-core quantitative courses at the CFNR.  And then he went to his graduate studies at the University of Hawaii, took his second master’s and doctorate degrees in political science. Initially, he wanted to focus on public policy, but the dominant post-structuralist, post-modern, post-colonial and feminist orientation of his department has influenced him to refocus his academic path toward critical political theory and analysis. His doctoral dissertation was still focused on forestry, but it was an application of Michel Foucault’s genealogical analysis in inquiring into the evolution of the forestry policy discourse in the country.

Upon his return to UPLB and when he moved to DLSU0, he began to expand his horizon to now include an analysis of politics in the context of everyday and ordinary lives of people, as he focused on popular culture, media and political communication, even as he continued conducting research and engaged in professional activities about the environment.  His academic career, thus, spanned the spectrum from modelling forest land-use allocation problems to culture studies where he analyzed popular cultural texts such as soap operas and social media.  He can be as mathematical as he can be post-modern and post-structural.  He can analyze a problem using any of the optimization techniques in operations research and management, or the methods of discourse analysis.

In SESAM, he will focus his teaching, research and social engagement/extension on environmental security and diplomacy.

Dr. Contreras is both an academic and a vlogger.  He publishes in academic journals as a scholar, even as he has his daily posts in Facebook and his thrice a week political vlog #UsapangPulitika where he endeavors to popularize political science topics.  He also writes a column “On the Contrary” that appears thrice weekly in The Manila Times.

 

Email: [email protected]

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Eduardo F. Roquiño
Assistant Professor 1

Ed’s areas of interest are in resource economics and political ecology. Specifically, he investigates the intersectionality of economics, power, and culture in the context of socioecological issues.

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Enrique P. Pacardo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus

Dr. Enrique Pacardo has more than 40 years of research in environmental impact assessment, sustainable rural development, environmental management, natural resource management and environmental education.

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Juan Miguel R. Guotana, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 3
JM is a geologist with research interests in igneous and metamorphic petrology, mineralogy, geochemistry, tectonics, microanalysis applications in geoscience, and carbonation of ultramafic rocks for CO2 storage. His former research involvements include mantle petrological works, multi-stage metasomatism and metamorphism of ultramafic rocks, high-pressure metamorphism, mineral-water interaction, deep-ocean drilling, drilling the crust-mantle transition (Oman Drilling Project), and geochemistry of volcanic rocks.
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Badi Samaniego, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 4

Badi has many years of experience in research and coastal resources management, and has collaborated with government institutions, NGOs, academe, local government units and fisher-folks at various levels and capacities since 1995. He specializes in coral reef fish ecology and has been part of numerous projects on marine protected areas assessment and evaluation. He was a research fellow with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and lead the reef fish survey team during the Global Reef Expedition through over 9 territories from the Eastern Pacific (Galapaos) through to the Indian Ocean (British Indian Ocean Territory) from 2012 to 2015. His post-graduate project focused on marine protected areas and looked into trajectories of change in the fish and benthic communities using space for time substitution.

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Eduardo C. Calzeta, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 4

Dr. Eduardo Calzeta is a forester and an environmental scientist with research interests in watershed management, forestry, hydrology, environmental impact assessment, economic valuation, risk assessment, flood modeling, and early warning system. His former research involvements include clonal propagation, economic valuation, urban forestry, watershed profiling, and vulnerability assessment. 

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Evaristo Niño T. Cando, III, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 3

Niño Cando is an environmental planner with research interests in urban ecology, environmental governance, land use planning, solid waste management, environmental pollution control, and climate change adaptation and mitigation (CCAM). He coordinates and co-teaches Contemporary Issues in Environment and Development, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Perspectives from the Natural and Social Sciences and Graduate Seminar.

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Jessica D. Villanueva-Peyraube, Ph.D.
Associate Professor 4

Current work: water resource management, surface and groundwater protection, emerging contaminants and particle characterization, and tool development for environmental surveillance and assessments.

Have a collaborative work on Cave and groundwater management and protection.

Former research involvements: GeoHazards, Changing climate and variation adaptations and resilience, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management (SANREM), Landcare and Agroforestry technologies, small scale aquaculture: developing a tool on assessing its contribution to sustainable rural development

[email protected]

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Marisa J. Sobremisana, Ph.D.
Associate Professor 3

Marisa J. Sobremisana  is an agricultural engineer and environmental scientist. Currently, she is an Associate Professor 3 at the School of Environmental Science and Management–University of the Philippines Los Baños. Dr. Sobremisana has been engaged in water security and water-related researches in cooperation with various local and international organizations. Her other fields of interest and specialization include Environmental Impact Assessment,  Industrial Ecology, Environmental Management System, Life Cycle Assessment, Green Productivity, Sustainable Urbanization, and Solid Waste Management.

Email: [email protected]

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Hildie Maria E. Nacorda, Ph.D.
Associate Professor 4

Dr. Hildie Maria Nacorda teaches aquatic and marine science and currently pursues research on biodiversity of coastal zones and the deep sea, with focus on soft bottom (sediment) ecology, behavior of marine invertebrates, invertebrate-seagrass interactions, seagrass ecosystems, and aspects related to coastal resources management.

Email: [email protected][email protected]

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Mark Dondi M. Arboleda, Ph.D.
Associate Professor 4

Dr. Mark Arboleda is a biologist with interests in aquatic ecology, microbiology, molecular biology and biotechnology, marine protected areas and sustainable community development. He coordinates and teaches Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics, Contemporary Issues in Environment and Development, Issues in Aquatic Ecology, Advanced Aquatic Ecology, Industrial Ecology, Special Topics in Environmental Science (Water Quality Assessment), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Perspectives from the Natural and Social Sciences and Graduate Seminar.

Email: [email protected]

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Janice B. Sevilla-Nastor, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 6

Janice Bugen Sevilla-Nastor is an environmental engineer with research interests in ecotoxicology, aquatic toxicology and sediment toxicity evaluation in the urban environment. She also works on bioaccumulation and transfer kinetics of heavy metals and organic pollutants in the aquatic environment. She co-teaches Advanced Aquatic Ecology, Systems Analysis and Quantitative Methods in Natural Resources Management, Dynamics of Population, Resources and Environment, and Contemporary Issues in Environment and Development.

Email: [email protected]

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Patricia Ann J. Sanchez, Ph.D.
Professor 5, Scientist 1

Pat Sanchez is an agricultural engineer with research interests in environmental hydrology, climate change impacts, adaptation, mitigation, disaster risk reduction and management, water resources management, extreme events hydrological modelling and crop modelling. She coordinates and co-teaches Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics, Contemporary Issues in Environment and Development, Environmental Hydrology (special topics) and Graduate Seminar classes. She is the chair of the UPLB Interdisciplinary Studies Center for Water and serves as a National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

Email: [email protected]

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Loucel E. Cui, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor 4

Loucel is an environmental scientist with research interests in diminutive freshwater fish biodiversity and conservation; water quality change in relation to land use/land cover dynamics; Climate change and climate impact and adaptation in agriculture; Climate education and capacity building.

Contact Details
Office Telefax No. +63 (049) 536-2251
Office Room: SESAM Environmental Lab
Email: [email protected]

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Maria Victoria O. Espaldon, Ph.D.
Professor 12, UP Scientist I

Dr. Vicky Espaldon is a human geographer and Professor at the School of Environmental Science and Management or SESAM, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). She serves as the Chair of the UPLB Climate Risks Study Center. She is former Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension from 2011to 2014 and former Dean of SESAM from 2006 to 2011. Her major research works are in the area of climate change adaptation, human dimensions of environmental changes; environmental and social impact assessment, program monitoring and evaluation; and ecosystem assessment.

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

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Decibel V. Faustino-Eslava, Ph.D.
Professor 9, UP Scientist III

Dr. Eslava is a geologist, a Professor, and a University Scientist at the University of the Philippines Los Banos – School of Environmental Science and Management (UPLB-SESAM). She obtained her BS and MS Geology degrees from UP Diliman, her MS in Earth Systems from Kumamoto University, Japan, and her PhD in Geology from The University of Hong Kong.

She served as UPLB’s School of Environmental Science and Management Dean for two consecutive terms, from 2015 to 2021. She also served for two consecutive terms as president of the Geological Society of the Philippines, and is also the current president of the Philippine Environmental Science Association, Inc. She was the Division Chair for Earth and Space Sciences of the National Research Council of the Philippines for two terms  from 2013-2017 and led the work on the formulation of the National Basic Research Agenda for the Environmental Sciences.

She was conferred by the NRCP the Achievement Award for Earth and Space Sciences in 2019, and by the Philippine Federation of Professional Associations – Council for the Built and Natural Environments the Distinction Award for the Geologist Profession in 2020. She is a Curator for the Special Collections for Geology of the Museum of Natural History at UPLB.With her work on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Dr. Eslava was recently recognized as one of six finalists, out of 425 nominations, for the 2023 Women’s International Network for DRRM (WIN DRRM) Excellence Award. The WIN DRRM is the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s flagship women’s leadership initiative.

Email: [email protected]