Christopher Y. Go awarded the San Carlos Borromeo Award

San Carlos Borromeo Award conferred on Christopher Y. Go

The San Carlos Borromeo Award was conferred today on internationally-recognized amateur astronomer Mr. Christopher Y. Go in in solemn ceremonies this afternoon at the CAFA Theater, Talamban Campus, with physicists, Go's relatives, and the Carolinian academic community in attendance.

The award was presented by Fr. Teodoro Gapuz, SVD, vice-president for academic affairs, on behalf of the University Administration and the Board of Trustees, with Dr. Roland Emerito Otadoy, chair of the Department of Physics, and Dr. Elizabeth Remedio, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as witnesses.

Go (third from left) with the San Carlos Borromeo Medal and citation, is flanked by Otadoy, Remedio and Fr. Gapuz (first, third and fourth from left).

Named after the University’s patron saint known for his great contributions to Catholic reformation and the establishment of seminaries while living a humble existence, the award was conferred on Go in recognition of his discovery of the changing conditions of a storm on planet Jupiter known as Red Spot Jr., officially designated as Oval BA, an achievement recognized internationally.

A graduate of a Physics degree from USC in 1991, Go rose to international fame on February 24, 2006, when he alerted the Jupiter Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) that Oval BA, a storm that formed in Jupiter in 2000, had metamorphosed from white to red. This important discovery was confirmed by the ALPO Japan Kansai Division. In March 2006, it had become as red as the planet's most famous "landmark", the storm called Great Red Spot. In reference to this, Oval BA is now fondly known as Red Spot Jr. or Red Jr.

Other than the award, Go was also given an appointment as the University’s first honorary lecturer signed just this morning by Fr. Pres. Roderick C. Salazar, Jr., SVD and confirmed by Fr. Teodoro Gapuz, SVD, the vice-president for academic affairs. Fr. Gapuz represented Fr. Pres. Salazar during the ceremonies as he had to depart for Manila for an urgent meeting.

Go presents his findings in response to his appointment as honorary lecturer.

In response to the award and the appointment, Go made a 20-minute presentation of his discovery and of the progress of work on Jupiter following his internationally-recognized achievement.

Red Spot Jr. is now under intense study by a group led by Dr. Imke de Pater and Dr. Phil Marcus, both of the University of California at Berkeley, with Go as a member. The research team was allowed the use of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in mid-April 2006 to obtain high-resolution images of Red Jr. On July 14 this year, the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. had a conjunction. But the two survived unscathed. To study this phenomenal event, the team was allowed use of the W. M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Go processed the deep infrared images from the Gemini Observatory also located at Mauna Kea.

The San Carlos Borromeo Award.

The group has also been awarded four orbits of HST in February 2007. Just recently, its proposal to use Cycle 16 of HST to study the Jovian climate was approved by the Space Telescope Science Institute, the agency under NASA handling the HST.

This is only the third time the San Carlos Borromeo Award has been given by the University since 2005 when it was first conferred on anthropologist Dr. Wenda Trevathan of New Mexico State University. In June this year, Ambassador Alex Weishaupt of Germany was also conferred the award. This is the first time, however, that the award is presented not as a plaque but in the form of a gilded medal with the lines “San Carlos Borromeo Medal of Excellence” engraved around a relief of the known portrait of the saint.

Author: J.E. Bersales
21 / August / 2007