UP CLOSE: DR. JOSE A. MAGPANTAY

WRITTEN BY IVY RESIDE 1989-90 VOL 2 NO 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jose Magpantay is one of the most respected professors who worked at the National Institute of Physics. He was serious in his lectures, often exclaiming “Walang misteryoso diyan!” while pointing at an equation on the board. But Dr. Magpantay was also serious in pointing out the need to fund scientific research, emphasizing that we will not become an industrialized country through a miracle. Indeed, in order to become a fully, nationally industrialized country, we must (1) pursue an independent foreign policy, (2) protect and promote our industries which work for our needs, (3) implement genuine agrarian reform, (4) and of course, support our scientists and engineers, and fund scientific research and education. Dr. Magpantay has retired from research just last year, but the fight for national industrialization and an advanced Philippine science and technology will never be retired until we break the shackles that chain our researchers. Walang misteryoso diyan!

SCIENTIA: When asked, children normally say “I want to be a doctor, or a businessman when I grow up”. So far, I don’t personally recall hearing anyone say that he wanted to be a physicist. So what triggered your interest in the field?

DR. M: It actually started in second year high school. Kasi, graduate ako ng Manila Science High School and I had a very good teacher named Mrs. Calumpang. She got my interest in physics going. During that time, what we were discussing was purely mechanics — motion, kinematics — yun naman kasi ang ginagawa pag high school. May mga problems, halimbawa, na bine-base niya kay Superman na he had to fly to catch a falling woman. Ang maganda kasi noon, we started with problems where you are plotting motion so nakikita mo kung ano ang nangyayari. physics is visual kasi ang umpisa, kinematics — you’re plotting motion, you’re doing graphs.

SCIENTIA: What can you say about how physics is being taught in the Institute?

DR. M: I think teachers should just teach the level of the course they are teaching. There are three levels of general service courses: Physics 21, which is basically high school physics; Physics 51 and 52 for Biology, pre-medical and Architecture students; and Physics 71, 72 and 73 or the calculus-level physics.

Sometimes there is a tendency for faculty members to use powerful mathematics to make physics easier. But you can’t do that for Physics 51 and 52 because those students aren’t required to know calculus. So the complaint, generally, is masyadong mataas ang level ng pagtuturo ng Physics 51 and 52.

So what we did was that every start of the semester we have workshops to orient new graduates, or new instructors, on what is expected of them. And we emphasize the level of each course. We also emphasize to instructors the policy that when they make exams, it should be designed in such a way that the average conscientious student should be able to pass it. SCIENTIA: In your previous response, you sort of used ‘’new instructors” and ‘’new graduates” interchangeably.

DR. M: Generally, ang mga new teachers, fresh graduates. Mabilis kasi ang turnover. Usually the faculty members just stay around for two or three years taking a few MS courses, and then they go to the US or Japan for their Ph.D. But we do have some senior instructors here, mga 3, 4 or 5 years nang nagtuturo. The most senior faculty member is retirable in twelve years, and then, after that, retiring in twenty years, thirty years.

SCIENTIA: However, the Physics community is still small, despite the fast turnover.

DR. M: We have very few graduates. I think the best year was in 1983, when we had 13 graduates!

SCIENTIA: What are your plans to make Physics as a course more attractive, especially to incoming freshmen?

DR. M: We would like the NIP to be a very good research institute. We would like the NIP to be doing interesting fundamen

tal work and interesting applied work in physics. Meaning, we’d like to be on an international level. For the Institute to do that we should have: one, the qualified manpower, which translates into a minimum requirement of a Ph.D. - an aggressive Ph.D.; two, publication in international journals; and three, we don’t just want publication in international journals, gusto naman namin na mga meaningful problems yung sino-solve. But the Institute would also like to be a research-experimental institute. We are developing experimental programs. And experimental physics is really expensive. We’d like the government to realize that it is to the advantage of the country if it supported these experimental programs. But apparently they don’t realize it. Kasi, when the Institute was founded in 1983 and became operational by 1984, the initial budget was 3 million. That was ‘83 - ’84: malaki na ang 3 million noon. Eh ngayon, ang research budget namin ay 1.6 million. Bumaba pa! We’re not really getting support from the government.

SCIENTIA: Perhaps the role of physics in progress is not being emphasized.

DR. M: Hindi nila nakikita, hindi nila napapansin na lahat ng bagong semiconductors, bagong space technology, hindi nangyayari without developments in physics. The most fundamental of the sciences is physics. Chemistry is applied molecular physics; electronics is based on semiconductor devices which are based on solid-state physics.

They keep on saying that they’d like to become a NIC (Newly Industrialized Country) by the year 2000. But I don’t think they know what it takes to be a NIC by then. Maybe they’re hoping for a miracle like EDSA. In this country, we’re always looking for miraculous solutions. It reflects on the way we think. Pag meron tayong na-develop na bagong variety of rice, we call it Miracle Rice, or pag fish, Miracle Fish. It’s in the culture. I don’t think we’re looking for hard work; I don’t think we’re ready for hard work. We want to be a NIC by the year 2000 through a miracle.

SCIENTIA: Nevertheless, Physics majors are very active in their research projects.

DR. M: One thing that we’re proud of is that in this Institute, everything is handson. We buy equipment and we let the students use them. Of course, minsan,may nasisira but that’s part of the learning process.

Most of the undergrads are members of the laboratories. They can join the Laser, Instrumentation, Electronics, Material Science or the Plasma Physics Laboratories. The Material Science lab is producing superconductors on thin film, something that advanced laboratories in the US and Japan are doing.

Kaya naman kailangan mong simulan lahat, kasi wala nang ibang institute sa Pilipinas na magsisimula pa. The premier physics institute is this institute. If it’s lousy, then wala na! Ngayon, it’s up to the University to respond. We started these projects, these very important programs, dapat i-fund iyan. Kasi pag hindi, mamamatay sila, and then we’ll have to start again from scratch.

For next year, we need a budget of 6 million, and I asked for this budget from Pres. Abueva, pero hindi pa sila nagre-respond kung ibibigay o hindi. But I think we deserve it; since 1980, we have had around 108 publications. We’re a very active Institute. The NIP is very serious in its efforts to develop physics. ●