After almost 44 years of academic service, the country鈥檚 first ever Optica Fellow is just getting started.
Light is a peculiar thing to study. In the 1700s, Isaac Newton believed that light was made up of particles too small to see. At around the same time, Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens proposed that light behaved like a wave, which explains things like reflection and refraction.
Eventually, partly through the weirdness of the so-called 鈥渄ouble-slit experiment鈥�, we discovered that both hypotheses were somehow true. Depending on how you observe them, shooting the subatomic constituents of light or photons into open slits results in patterns that look like they were made by either particles or waves hitting a sensor.
This seeming paradox remains one of the greatest mysteries of quantum physics. However, an anomaly in science can be a perfectly apt analogy to describe a career. Specifically, being two things at once, with the impact depending on one鈥檚 perspective, describes the career of one of the country鈥檚 most decorated researchers of light鈥擠r. Caesar Saloma.听
After a long and multi-awarded career, Saloma was named last January as one of the (formerly the Optical Society of America), the world鈥檚 leading organization for professionals working in the science of light. Recognized for 鈥減ioneering research and development in optics and photonics in the country, including the training of young scientists鈥�, this Fellowship sounds every bit the perfect bookend to a legendary career.
Saloma, however, is far from done. As he winds down to finally retire as a faculty member at the UP Diliman National Institute of Physics (NIP), he wants to finish one last quest: to see Filipino PhDs multiply and do world-class research shoulder-to-shoulder with the world鈥檚 best.
A Practical Man听
Saloma says his major contributions can be split into two equally important eras. 鈥淎s a young scientist, I think what I was most proud of was publishing in the journals of the Optical Society, as an all-Filipino team,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat had never happened before.鈥�
Growing up in the 1960s in Baclayon, Bohol, the young Caesar got his first taste of practical innovation by watching his father, a National Power Corporation (Napocor) engineer. During weekends, his father would be either installing lights or fixing broken electrical connections around the house, not knowing his son was closely watching.
鈥淗e loved making things with his hands,鈥� Saloma recounted. For example, having limited spare money to spend on toys, the elder Saloma devised clever ways to work around the problem. When Caesar was in elementary school, he remembered his father made him a scooter using wheels from his old childhood tricycle. 鈥淭hat exposed me to a systems or modular approach to doing things. Of using whatever was there in the environment to create or make things better.鈥�
After a stint in a seminary school in Bohol, Saloma eventually found himself in UP as one of few Physics students of what was, at the time, the Department of Physics in 1977. Physics in Diliman looked very different then. For one, there were no applied physicists, the department being run at the time by theoretical physicists. In such a new environment, the profoundly practical Saloma struggled to adjust.
鈥淢y classmates were very well-prepared; they were products of elite high schools with excellent training in science and mathematics,鈥� he remembered. 鈥淏ut what drove me to persevere was my dream of becoming a scientist someday.鈥�
Perfection
Despite the mismatch, Saloma would earn not just a Bachelor鈥檚 in Physics degree, but also an MS. 鈥淚 was just happy to graduate,鈥� he said with a smile. It was during his PhD studies, however, that former UP Diliman Chancellor Roger Posadas had a vision that at least some of the current crop of Physics students would leave to pursue Applied Physics. And it was during his dissertation writing that Saloma鈥檚 turn came.
鈥淔ortunately, I was sent to Osaka University鈥檚 Department of Applied Physics. I spent around 18 months working with a very nice professor called Shigeo Minami.鈥� Minami-sensei was kind, he recounted, going all the way to Diliman to teach optics or the study of light and its properties. 鈥淚 was very lucky.鈥�
Saloma imbibed more than just effective problem-solving skills during his Japan trip. He learned the Japanese way of 鈥渄oing good science鈥�.鈥淔irst I learned what a good library with up-to-date journals was like,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 also learned what these professors did daily. They met with their students one on one. The roles of professors and graduate students were clear and complementary.鈥�
He also witnessed his lab mates鈥� extreme attention to detail. 鈥淲e were good at theory but even when aligning lasers, (the Japanese) wanted it to be perfect. Of course, nothing is perfect, but they were really committed to the idea.鈥�
Similarly, circumstances were turning out perfectly for Saloma鈥檚 personal life, too. While doing postdoctoral research with Minami鈥檚 assistant professor, Dr. Satoshi Kawata, he met the young molecular biologist, Cynthia Palmes, in a get-together of Filipino students while visiting a friend in Nagoya. 鈥淲hat caught my eye was. . . . This lady was so confident. . . . I thought she was already a PhD student!鈥� he said jokingly. They would eventually marry.听
All these and more Saloma took home to UP. He would not only bring a newfound technical confidence in optics, but Saloma also became a vector for a winning culture of scientific mentorship. The former produced some of his most cited early publications.
One, which saw Saloma and his colleagues awarded a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2007, involved combining two existing imaging techniques and the help of computer software to create high-contrast images of semiconductor and metal sections in the integrated circuits that form the backbone of the digital revolution. By directing a laser onto the surface of an integrated circuit and analyzing the feedback variation caused by defects, the team found a cost-effective solution to find anomalies before they left the production floor.
The Heart of Scientific Production
While much can be said of Saloma鈥檚 contributions to optics and its sister discipline, photonics, his contributions to science as a mentor and administrator will probably outlive even those. These characterize the second era of his major contributions.
Returning from Japan, Saloma realized that part of building strong research groups was听 to form a pool of equally strong undergraduates. He pushed for the inclusion of theses as a precondition for graduation and mentored the very first BS Applied Physics graduate (thesis option) of the NIP in the process, Noel Mediodia.
From these undergraduate trainees, Saloma would form research groups made up of the best young, practical-minded physicists in the country. The names of those directly trained or who collaborated with Saloma in one way or another read like a veritable who鈥檚 who of the discipline: Giovanni Tapang, Percival Almoro, Wilson Garcia, Maricor Soriano, Christopher Monterola, May Lim and many more. 鈥淭o date I have supervised the graduation of 23 PhD students,鈥� he said, each solving important problems in and out of the University.
After trying to avoid administrative work to focus on research and mentoring for a long time, Saloma eventually gave in, becoming NIP Director in 2000, College of Science Dean in 2006 and, eventually, UP Diliman Chancellor in 2011. While his administrative deeds deserve their own piece, perhaps his greatest gift to science in the Philippines as Dean was spearheading the establishment and completion of the 21.5-hectare National Science Complex in UP Diliman, Saloma鈥檚 concrete-wrapped tribute to the ideals of reason and progress. It was also a feat, he said, that could have killed him.听
鈥淚n 2009, I got an acute hypertensive attack,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had to be confined at the Philippine Heart Center for about a week. I was lucky it didn鈥檛 develop into a stroke, or worse.鈥�
With a little help from a late and lucky P1.6 billion addition to the re-enacted 2006 National Budget, a land-use sketch by Dr. Roger Posadas, and the dogged persistence of all parties involved, Saloma managed to turn what he called 鈥渢hat big space full of ice candy wrappers鈥� into the beating heart of science production in the country after about seven years. 鈥淚 had to exercise authority,鈥� he noted, in a matter-of-fact tone. 鈥淲ho else would lead that but the Dean?鈥�
A Flowering of Solutions
Saloma, once the young dreamer from Baclayon who started teaching at 21, turns 65 this March 2025. 鈥淚鈥檓 about to retire,鈥� he told this author. 鈥淚 just requested the University to complete the academic year because I want to help all my advisees graduate. Hopefully they will agree.鈥�
If the story were to end here, being named an Optica Fellow would be the perfect bow to tie around a career that would have been rich enough from either scholarship or mentorship alone, but it was that much more inspirational for having both.
鈥淚鈥檓 really happy that it happened here in UP,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause I used to look up to Optical Society Fellows after reading their publications; but they were predominantly affiliated with American or European institutions with a few other Japanese scientists joining in. Now our students can see that scientists like them aren鈥檛 myths; they are just as human as they are. And that we can do legitimately good science here in our country.鈥�
鈥淧uwede po rito. Our University can compete.鈥�
So, what鈥檚 next? For Saloma, whose career was built on an endless series of questions, the big-picture answer has always been clear. 鈥淚鈥檝e been in discussions with the UP President on how I can help,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y view is that UP can accomplish its purpose by being a successful graduate university. And that means producing more PhD graduates who graduate on time while finding scientific solutions to the difficult problems facing the country, for their dissertation research.鈥�
鈥淲hy is that? Each PhD from whatever field requires you to solve a dissertation problem. And we have a lot of complex challenges that can benefit from an interdisciplinary solution. If you have more graduates, you have more solutions. So, you have a successful graduate university that leads to a successful research university and then a successful public service university that can improve our quality of life鈥�.
鈥淓ach problem that we solve creates a positive impact, right? Not just for us at UP but for Philippine society. That鈥檚 my humble argument and I hope we can make that a reality.鈥�
