When Dr. When Gay Jane Perez was a child, she never imagined that she would become a decorated physicist, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Space Administration (NASA), a leader in space economics, as well as an airline CEO. Philippine Aviation Agency (PhilSA).
“Although very, very young, I thought about being an astronaut. But not very seriously, in a way that was, ‘Oh! It would be great to be an astronaut! I want to be an astronaut.’ But what course would you take to become an astronaut? There is no Filipino astronaut,” he shared. “So it’s just one of those things that will bother you but you have no way of getting it.”
Perez didn’t even attend high school for science. As a student at the Universidad de Santa Isabel in Naga City, he grew up seeing lawyers, accountants, and doctors at job fairs, not scientists. His school also aimed to develop leaders, writers, and public speakers.
Even though he was a diligent student leader, he felt that this skill was his weakness, so he was interested in math rather than words. While his friends were winning speech contests, he was winning math olympiads.
He chose to major in physics – the most mathematical science, he thought at the time – at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman after the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) offered a scholarship and encouraged a science course.
But while his strengths in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) made him popular among his high school classmates, all of his college classmates came from science high schools. He struggled to keep up after everything he knew about physics was covered in the first week.
To his surprise, his weakness became his strength. While applying for a prestigious research lab in his third year of university, his lecture and presentation on the science behind animation technology. Toy Story it caught the attention of its audience.
“Before me, people were chatting during other presentations. But when I started giving my speech, everyone started listening, including the head of the laboratory, Dr. Caesar Saloma, who eventually became my mentor,” he recalled.
“I think it happened that they weren’t used to hearing someone like me. My weakness when I was in high school was my strength when I was in college because I was more comfortable speaking in front of the class, more than others. But it’s all relative, right? So, I thought, if they knew my high school friends!”
It was a time of change, especially for the struggling Perez, who was trying to pass his studies.
“They must have seen my potential and decided to bet on me, even if I wasn’t as good as those in science high schools,” he said. “So when they accepted me, I really appreciated it, especially since I ended up doing well in the research part. I really enjoyed the act of research! Investigating something that you don’t know where it will lead… I found it very interesting and exciting because every day is unique.”
Mission: Return home
It is also the university where he found role models in science that he did not grow up with. One of his greatest influences was Saloma, former chancellor of UP Diliman and professor emeritus at the National Institute of Physics.
“He is the one who showed interest in science, and more importantly, doing science in the Philippines. We had some scientists before in the Philippines who are now famous scientists abroad. A few chose to stay and continue doing science here, and he is one of them,” he said.
“But what I learned from him, which influenced me in my work, is that you can do science in the Philippines and it is needed more here. You can create higher results here because the science you do will help our society.”
After being accepted into a postdoctoral fellowship at NASA Goddard Flight Center, he took the course with him from Saloma to Washington, DC. Even when he was immersed in a state-of-the-art research facility with state-of-the-art equipment and Nobel Prize-winning scientists down the hall from his office, he never forgot the Philippines.
Throughout his time at NASA, he often found himself thinking, “How I wish we had something like that in the Philippines. I want to bring this to the Philippines.” After just a few months, he couldn’t wait to go home.
At that time, many people were waiting for him to return home and depend on his contributions to the country. He made a comparison about how he felt during that time at NASA when Christina Koch of the Artemis II mission became the first woman to walk around the moon.
“During their last mission to the moon, the last statement (Koch) said was, ‘We choose Earth.’ So, for me, it was like I went to NASA on a mission to come home,” Perez said.
NASA on Philippine soil
In the Philippines, he used the research he did and the data he collected at NASA to lead the development of the Philippines’ first small satellite, Diwata-1, and launched it in 2016. The satellite data was used for drought forecasting, agricultural monitoring, and climate assessment, aimed at serving farmers and the agricultural sector during severe El Niño seasons.
Perez, although already a decorated scientist at this point, had a dream he still wanted to fulfill: to have something like NASA on Philippine soil.
The next step was a no-brainer for the scientist as he eventually contributed to the establishment of the Philippine Space Agency. He had served first as an officer-in-charge, deputy director general, and finally appointed director general by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in January 2026.
As a six-year-old government agency, PhilSA is young, new, and exciting. Perez said the organization now has 247 employees. Having been involved in its creation since Day 1, he knows that its people are the most important in ensuring its success and sustainability.
But due to the “brain drain” – Filipino scientists choosing to move to countries with better pay, conditions and research opportunities – the challenge is not to ask them to stay, but to create an environment that makes them want to stay.
“What we strive for and we think is very important is to create an environment for them to thrive, to absorb them. Because otherwise, the same narrative of the Filipino who will eventually look for greener pastures abroad, or will find more meaningful things to do abroad, will continue,” Perez said.
“(I usually think,) ‘What can I do here? We don’t have the equipment, we don’t have the resources, it’s better to do my science outside, somewhere else.’ So creating that environment where they can see that they will thrive and succeed and do good and do meaningful and productive science, that is still a work in progress. Now, in my position as the head of the agency, that is where I focus my energies.”
The Philippine scientific community is creative and adaptable despite the lack of funding, equipment, and working “against all odds.” But Perez is not one to do romantic fights. For him, pursuing a career in science should not always come with many obstacles.
every year of the organization Philippine Aviation Week it is one way they can convey to stakeholders and the general public why it is worth investing and betting on PhilSA and the Philippine scientific community.
Throughout the week, they present the achievements of the year, the people and partnerships that made it all possible, and the emerging possibilities and opportunities that the space economy has to offer. They also show the problems and issues that space and data technology can help solve and the ways that can be implemented to serve the people of the Philippines.
Through this event, they not only show what science in the Philippines can achieve, but also why scientists in the country are needed and deserve support.
Inventions, events
If, growing up, Perez never had a scientist speak at his career fair, it was a full-circle moment for him to be invited to be his high school’s commencement speaker. Now he has become a role model that he never had in his formative years. Now, he is dedicated to showing others that a career in science is full of discoveries and adventures.
“They were also saying that being a scientist is like a vow of poverty, that you won’t get rich from science. But I think that’s not fair,” Perez said. “It’s true in the sense that you’re not going to get rich, but it’s not like it’s going to make you poor. And when you’re not going to get rich because you don’t make a lot of money, you probably don’t need that much.”
“I also think it’s a profession of great honor and integrity,” Perez added. “For one reason, you eliminate lies. Because science, right? You need data, facts. So this is a career you can get by just telling the truth. You can sleep soundly at night.”
For young Filipinos who are considering a career in science, he wants them to know that, “There is a future for you here. I am one of you. Like you, before, I did not see a clear path (of a career) in science. But now you can see me.” – Rappler.com
Captions in Filipino were briefly translated into English.
Elise Suarez is a Rappler student from Puerto Princesa City and a Humanities student at the University of Asia and the Pacific.
