BIO

I am a son of the south, a proud Bisaya born and raised in Cagayan de Oro. I studied physics as an Ateneo Merit Scholar and DOST Merit Scholar at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Metro Manila, where I was mentored by mathematical relativist Jerrold Garcia. After briefly teaching in Ateneo, I moved to the University of Florida and would earn a PhD in Physics with a focus on relativity and gravitational physics under the supervision of Steve Detweiler. Afterwards, I was a three-year postdoctoral fellow with Eric Poisson at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada.  For another three years, I was a postdoctoral research associate in the Astrophysics Sector of SISSA (International School For Advanced Studies) in Trieste, Italy, where I was affiliated with Thomas Sotiriou's group that is now based in the University of Nottingham.

Traveling the world for physics was fun, but nothing beats working for one's homeland. In 2016, I began working as an associate professor at the National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines - Diliman and established the NIP Gravity Group. I was promoted to professor in 2019 and recommended for tenure in 2020. 

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In 2019, I was named Outstanding Young Scientist for Theoretical Physics by the National Academy of Science and Technology. And in 2021, I was profiled by the Asian Scientist Magazine (based in Singapore) as one of Asia's Rising Scientists. 

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In 2023, the Gravity Group became one of the founding members of the Gravity, Astronomy, Nuclear and Particle Physics (GANAP) Research Program of the National Institute of Physics. 

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My better half, Monet Morales Vega, is an associate professor with expertise in nanoscience and spectroscopy at the Materials Science and Engineering Program of the College of Science, University of the Philippines - Diliman. Together we help keep each other's sanity in check as we raise our two confident, assertive kids of seemingly boundless energy.