What is the Elementa Project™?
The Elementa Project is an innovation platform covering various projects funded by a unique mechanism and managed by a small group of UPLB Chemical Society alumni. Its name came from elementa, Latin for “elements” and its logo is the word Elementa spelled out using the chemical symbols of available elements. It operates under the umbrella of the UPLB Chemical Society Alumni Association, Inc. The various projects will benefit the Institute of Chemistry, its students, the UPLB community, and the Chemistry profession. Projects include, but not limited to, set up and maintenance of a decorative wall-mounted Periodic Table of the Elements; infrastructure improvement; interactive educational displays; chemistry webinars; lab equipment donation; granting of scholarships and financial assistance; thesis competition; souvenir fund-raising; networking; job placement; career orientation; scientific incubator consultation; chemistry week; and, access to books and journals. The unique funding mechanism involves annual alumni sponsorship of each of the 118 elements for a fee with the sponsor’s name and Chem Soc batch indicated below the element symbol. The Elementa Project is open to proposals for new projects from alumni and can assist in facilitating individual and alumni group donations to the Institute of Chemistry.
History
The Elementa Project came into existence in October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. What started out as a weekly Saturday night (Philippine time) virtual catch-up meeting among a small group of UPLB Chemical Society alumni using the Zoom account of Rene Diocares (based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) provided a forum for the periodic table project proposal of Dr. Lani Ramos-Mercado (based in Waxahachie, Texas, USA) to raise funds to buy lab equipment for the UPLB Institute of Chemistry. The proposal was to obtain annual alumni sponsorship of each of the 118 elements for a fee with the sponsor’s name and Chem Soc batch indicated below the element symbol. The project was named the Elementa Project, elementa being Latin for “elements” and the word Elementa is spelled out using the chemical symbols of available elements. The name Elementa Project later represented all the projects funded by this unique mechanism. The project was to be operated under the umbrella of the UPLB Chemical Society Alumni Association, Inc. Aside from Rene Diocares and Dr. Lani Ramos-Mercado, the small group of Chem Soc alumni included Rey Espiritu, Tessa Estrella, VT Estrella, Glo Gamat, Dr. Loi Garcia, Dr. Jojo Bondoc, Gemma Mose, Rach Atienza, and Bernie Sison.
While the periodic table project is on-going, there was the Elementa Webinar Series on The Chemistry of COVID-19 and Career Pathways from January to March, 2021 using the Zoom platform of Rey Espiritu’s MEDConcept Solutions. The alumni presenters in five webinar dates included Dr. Jojo Bondoc, Dr. Loi Garcia, Dr. Joey Santos, Dr. Gani Padolina, Dr. Diana Aga, Noel Bautista, Dr. Earl Ada, Dr. Ruela Pabalan, Dr. Neil Concibido, and Rene Diocares.
The decorative modern 3m x 0.07m x 2.5m Periodic Table of the Elements was wall-mounted in Physical Science Building Wing B and turned over to Dr. Marivic Lacsamana, Director of the Institute of Chemistry, in a ceremony graced by Chancellor Dr. Jose V. Camacho, Jr. on June 2, 2021. The periodic table was designed in Australia and manufactured in the Philippines. After idea inception in October 2020, it was vetted with Dr. Lacsamana in October 2020, supported by ex-Chancellor Dr. Rey Velasco in November 2020, approved by Chancellor Camacho in November 2020, with elements sponsored by 94 Chem Soc alumni, and supported by Paulo Amer Jriej, President of UPLB Chem Soc Alumni Association and Franchette Requino, President of UPLB Chem Soc.
Vision
“Globally-competitive innovative Chemistry graduates”
Mission
“Support the development of globally-competitive innovative Chemistry graduates to do relevant projects towards national economic growth.”
About the Elementa Logo
The Elementa logo consists of the word Elementa spelled out using the periodic table entries of available elements. An entry contains the atomic symbol of an element and its atomic number. Since the elements Nitrogen (N) and Tantalum (Ta) are the only available legitimate entries, the other letters need to come from the other entries. For the capital letter “E”, this was obtained from the element Europium (Eu) and using an atomic number of 63.5; “0.5” is indicated to mean using half of the 2-letter atomic symbol. For the small letter “l”, this was obtained from the element Aluminum (Al) and using an atomic number of 13.5. For the small letter “e”, this was obtained from the element Helium (He) and using an atomic number of 2.5. Finally, for the small letter “m”, this was obtained from the element Promethium (Pm) and using an atomic number of 61.5.