Biography

I presently hold the rank of Professor VI at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) where I am actively involved in instruction, research, and extension activities. I am currently the director of the IIlocos Norte Science Community (INSC). I earned my BS in Agricultural Engineering from MMSU in 1994, magna cumlaude, and landed on the eighth spot in the Licensure Examination for Agricultural Engineers given in September of the same year.

I went to Pampanga Agricultural College in Magalang, Pampanga in June 1995 to serve as instructor.  While there, I pursued my MS in Agricultural Engineering  at the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation-De La Salle which I finished in 1998. After two years, I was sent to the University of the Philippines Los Baños to pursue a doctorate degree in the same field where I majored in land and water resources and minored in agrometeorology and farm machinery which I completed in 2003.  I was on a Southeast Asian Regional Center for Research and Graduate Study in Agriculture-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO-SEARCA) scholarship, an international competitive scholarship.

In my 20 years in the government service, I was given various administrative designations such as chairman of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, dean of the College of Engineering, and director of the Ilocos Norte Science Community. I am also been actively involved in scientific and professional organizations that helped hone my leadership skills. I was national president of the Philippine Society for the Study of Nature where I was given a Leadership Award, executive director of the SEARCA Fellows Association of the Philippines,  and member of the Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society for Agriculture and the Philippine Society of Agricultural Engineers. I was one time vice president for Luzon of the Association of Agricultural Engineering Department Chairmen in the Philippines and vice president of the Association of Engineering Deans in Region 1.

My research works, which are along linking climate information in agriculture and water management, agro-informatics (field monitoring system), remote sensing in agriculture and water management, climate-based crop forecasting method, and groundwater hydrology, have been published in national and international refereed journals. Strategies

One significant point in my career came in 2009 when I was granted a six-month post-doctoral research fellowship at the At present, I am involved in a project titled “Climatic changes and evaluation of their effects on agriculture in Asian monsoon region (CAAM)” which is under the research framework of the Green Network of Excellence (GRENE) for Japanese fiscal years 2011-2016. This is supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology (MEXT). I am also currently involved in two national research projects, namely: 1) National Research and Development Project for Watershed Management: The Case of Quiaoit River Watershed (QRW), where I am assigned to work on the instrumentation and analysis of the relationships between climatological, soil and water data; and 2) LIDAR 2 Data Processing and Validation in Luzon: CAR and selected sites in Region 1. On October this year, we are waiting for the implementation of another project entitled, “Enhancing value chain for peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production and processing - Enhancing Peanut Production through Innovative Water Management University of Tokyo, Japan, by the Matsumae International Foundation which ushered me to more international engagements in research and extension.  My research output on “IT field monitoring in a Japanese System of Rice Intensification (J-SRI)” was published in an international journal. To continually update myself on new knowledge and technologies as well as global trends in my field of specialization, I have attended a number of national and international trainings, conferences, and symposia. Notable among these are: (1) Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)  in Stockholm, Sweden (Phase 1-3,  Aug. 21-Sept. 14, 2010) and in Vientiane, Laos (Phase 4-5, Feb. 9-21, 2011) sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SiDa) and organized by Ramboll Natura AB and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI); and (2) series of training-workshops on Satellite Remote Sensing and Its Applications (Parts 1-3) which was sponsord by the DOST Balik-Scientist Program on January 11-18, 2011; June 1-8, 2011; April 24 – May 1, 2012, respectively at the Mariano Marcos State University. My training in IWRM led to the implementation of my “change project” titled “Improvement of water resources management in  Ilocos Norte, Philippines using IWRM principles”.

Recently, I have been granted with another 6-months (September 2014 – March 2015) research fellowship at Columbia University, in the City of New York, by the Fulbright Program. During my stint as a Fulbright scholar, I worked on “Using Climate and Weather Information for Risk Management in Agriculture in the Philippines”. I was able to produce two research articles, one of which has been published and the other one is in the pipeline. Moreover, I Served as Visiting Research Scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA-GFSC), Maryland, USA on the whole month of November 2015. During my stay at NASA-GFSC, I trained on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) wherein I processed and analyzed EOS/MODIS surface radiance data.  I also Worked on the spatial and seasonal variability of the reflectivity and albedo of the Earth’s surface.