PCSC 2006

6^th Philippine Computing Science Congress

March 28-29, 2006

Ateneo de Manila University

Organized by the

Computing Society of the Philippines
( http://www.csp.org.ph )

March 28, 2006. Escaler Hall. SEC Bldg. A.

Day 1. TUESDAY, 28 March 2006

10:30 – 11:20 a.m.

Eduardo Mendoza, Ph.D.

Ludwig-Maximilian Universitat Munchen, Germany

Keynote Speaker No. 2:

Dr. Eduardo R. Mendoza

Senior Research Scientist

Physics Department & Center for NanoScience

Ludwig-Maximilians-University

Munich, Germany

( Mendoza@lmu.de )

Title of talk: “EUCLIS: An Information System for Circadian Systems Biology”

Abstract:

EUCLOCK is a large research network which started in January 2006 to investigate the circadian clock from cells to humans, specifically how circadian clocks entrain, i.e. synchronise with their (cyclic) external environment. Circadian rhythms exist at all levels of biology, for example, in rest/activity, arousal, or vigilance, in temperature, urinary output, blood pressure, or heart rate, in enzyme activity, hormone concentrations, or gene expression. This internal 'day' is self-sufficient but not entirely independent of the external day. A misalignment between internal and external time, for example, as a consequence of shift-work or insufficient entrainment because of age-related changes, can have a strong impact on health and well being.

EUCLOCK is coordinated by Prof. Till Roenneberg at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and consists of 34 chronobiologists from 29 institutions in 11 countries as Principal Investigators. EUCLOCK's budget is more than 16 million EUR over 5 years, of which 12 millions are a contribution by the European Union. The author and researchers at UP Diliman are tasked with building EUCLIS (EUCLOCK Information System) to serve the needs of the EUCLOCK scientists initially and later evolve to an infrastructure for the worldwide Chronobiology community. Underlying EUCLIS is an advanced database architecture, which will integrate experimental data, computational models and external information. The talk will discuss the ongoing design and current implementation plans in the context of opportunities (and challenges) for Filipino scientists in the emerging field of Systems Biology.

About the Speaker:

After finishing high school (as valedictorian) and the first two years of college (as university scholar) at the Ateneo de Manila, Eduardo Mendoza completed his B.S. Math (magna cum laude) at the University of Heidelberg. As a DAAD scholar, he finished his M.S. and Ph.D. in Math at the University of Bonn under Guenter Harder. While an assistant professor of Mathematics at Wuppertal University, he developed an interest in computer networks and decided to move to the IT industry in 1980 to pursue this interest.

Over a period of 22 years, he worked as a software developer, project manager, department head and director of consulting services for various companies, including Siemens, Scientific Control Systems (BP Group), Softlab (BMW Group) and Microsoft. At Microsoft, he received the President’s Award in 1997 for his achievements as director of Microsoft Consulting Services in Germany. From 1998 to 2002, he was responsible for Microsoft Consulting Services in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Beginning October 2002, he went on "early retirement" to pursue his interests in systems biology and long-standing plans to contribute to science and technology education in the Philippines. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Physics Department and the Center for NanoScience of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany and an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at UP Diliman. He coordinates both the SMILES (Statisitcs, Mathematics and Informatics in the Life and Environmental Sciences) Initiative at UPD (www.engg.upd.edu.ph/~compbio) and the Munich Systems Biology Forum (http://www.msbf.mpg.de ). He can be reached at mendoza@lmu.de or eduardom@math.upd.edu.ph