M.F. Ian Vega, II
Dr. Ian Vega is a theoretical physicist and professor at the National Institute of Physics (NIP), UP Diliman, where he leads the Gravity Group, which is part of the Gravity, Astronomy, Nuclear, and Particle Physics (GANAP) Research Program. He also serves as the Deputy Director for Facilities and Resources of the Institute. He conducts research primarily on theoretical gravitational physics and relativistic astrophysics, focusing on black holes, gravitational waves, relativistic stars, and cosmology.
He is also broadly interested in applications of geometry in physics. He earned his BS from Ateneo de Manila and PhD from the University of Florida, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph (Canada) and then SISSA (Italy) before returning to the Philippines in 2016.
In recognition of his efforts, Dr. Vega was named Outstanding Young Scientist for Theoretical Physics by the National Academy of Science and Technology in 2019. Additionally, in 2021, he was profiled by Asian Scientist Magazine (based in Singapore) as one of Asia’s Rising Scientists. Besides his research, Dr. Vega is also an enthusiastic educator who has mentored several graduate and undergraduate students. He is optimistic that the next generation of Filipino physicists will surpass the current one, and is passionate about ensuring that this becomes a reality.
He was recently awarded the 2024 Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Guro by UP Diliman.
Selected Publications
- Fortuna and I. Vega. Bernstein spectral method for quasinormal modes and other eigen-value problems. European Physical Journal C, 83(12), 2023.
- De Leon and I. Vega. Phase boundaries and the widom line from the ruppeiner geometry of fluids. Physical Review E, 106(5), 2022.
- Fortuna and I. Vega. Electromagnetic quasinormal modes of schwarzschild-anti-de sitter black holes: Bifurcations, spectral similarity, and exact solutions in the large black hole limit. Physical Review D, 106(8), 2022.
