UST CoS launches centennial celebration with history exhibit
By: Bernadette Padron
To kick-start its centennial year celebration, the UST College of Science (CoS) opens a month-long history exhibit carrying the theme “100 Years of Expressing Faith through Excellence in Science” at the UST Museum on March 5, 2025.
Science Dean, Prof. Rey Donne S. Papa, PhD, delivered the opening remarks, discussing the various mementos presented at the UST Museum and how those pioneered the teaching of science at UST. The mementos presented include a banner containing descriptions of the period of transition, period of advancement, and other key events that took place in CoS.
Laboratory equipment such as a specific gravity hydrometer set, Bunsen burner, spectrophotometer, colorimeter, decade capacitor box, microscope mirror, analytical balance, and Eppley standard cell were also displayed.
“An institution is nothing without the contributions of those people who enriched the life of the college,” Dean Papa said.
At the end of his talk, he announced that the exhibit will be open for the entire month of March and he encouraged everyone to invite visitors to appreciate the artifacts and learn something from them.
Prof. Emeritus Fortunato B. Sevilla III, PhD took the audience through the college’s early years, as he quipped that he was the oldest faculty member in the College. Sevilla recalled the college’s struggles to have enrollees during the revolution, as well as the courses offered in the CoS in the past and present.
Afterwards, College Secretary Assoc. Prof. Ezra S. Aguilar, PhD, read the inspirational message of Fr. Louie R. Coronel, OP., Regent of CoS, who was unable to attend.
“Legacy reminds us that to be great, we must be grounded,” his message emphasized how the exhibit is not just a display of the past but also mirrors the CoS’s legacy.
Assoc. Prof. Mary Ann Venturina-Bulanadi, PhD, the exhibition curator, expounded on the purpose of the exhibit during her closing remarks. “The past continues to shape the present and influence the future,” Bulanadi ended, emphasizing the historical exhibit’s significance.
The event concluded with a ribbon cutting. Besides the exhibit at the UST Museum, more can be seen at the Main Building Lobby, including caricatures of outstanding Thomasian graduates and scientists, acknowledgments, and exhibits of the faculty and alumni who were part of the University over the past century. CoS alumni are also enjoined to sign their names on the “Wall of Graduates” banner displayed in the Main Building Lobby until March 31.
