Today was a fairly long day. First event was the conferment of the honorary degree to physicist and 2004 Nobel laureate Prof. David Gross. This was also the first in the UP Centennial lecture series, and so received a fair amount of pomp. The university officials and faculty representatives were decked out in their formalwear, with many of them wearing their sablays. President Roman, the Regents, and the University secretary were in their togas and hats. Also, the Secretary had an actual scepter that she had to hold aloft during processionals! (She would walk right in front of President Roman.)
The UP Singing Ambassadors provided some musical intermissions, which were, hmm, a bit lackluster, some would say messy. Some people gave several speeches, like President Roman and Jaime Zobel de Ayala, who was there as the Philippine chairman of the International Peace Foundation.
And then of course Prof. Gross gave his lecture. He was supposed to have talked about "the coming revolutions in fundamental physics", but he was apparently persuaded to give another, broader talk on "the lessons of science". The talk that he actually gave was interesting, yeah, but I would've liked to hear the other one better, I think. But I guess we weren't all physicists in the crowd, so...
The entire thing had video coverage, and this coverage was webcast to the other UP campuses over the Philippines. I had to wonder about the quality of these broadcasts, since when the open forum came around, we at the Film Institute could not make out what the people from the other locations were asking. They had to transmit the text through other means and have the emcee at our location read their questions out. (Though I guess the broadcast was good enough, if they were able to ask questions at all.)
When it was over I headed to Teriyaki Boy Katipunan with the physics people for lunch. Mmm, tofu steak, sukiyaki, kani fry...
Then back to NISMED at 2 pm for the Dialog with Prof. Gross, this time only with the scientific community. (Mostly physicists and such, really.) It was great, a very interesting and lively dialog took place. People asked generally good questions. I was trying to think of something to ask, but was afraid of looking a fool and asking a question that I could just as easily have answered for myself, anyway, so... Haha.
(It was rather inspiring to hear him talk, actually. He makes being a theoretical physicist sound like a hell of a lot of fun! I just have to figure out whether I like (love) doing this enough to stick with it for reals. Hmmmmmm.)
Waited around a bit at Old, then went with Anthony and the others (Rica, Angel, Aiyin) to Trinoma to look around and have dinner. We ended up eating at Le Maison, and the food was good if expensive. We also ordered too much carbs: their mashed potatoes come in huge servings, and the pasta dish we ordered felt a bit much as a result. Anthony and I also decided to split a fish dish (sole fillet with some sort of buttery sauce), which had a great soft texture and a clean taste made rich by the butter, but I think maybe we shouldn't have. We probably overate (and overspent, but hey, we're stipend kids).
Now I'm tired and sleepy. And I have to make up for the exercise I was planning to get this afternoon! Good night!
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