TJ Dimacali

Timothy James "TJ" Martinez Dimacali, (born April 17, 1980) is a Filipino science fiction writer and a science journalist. He is the first Filipino and first Fulbright scholar to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Graduate Program in Science Writing. He is also a science education advocate.

As a journalist, Dimacali served as Science and Technology Editor for GMA News and Public Affairs’s online portal GMA News Online, which earned him recognition from the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology, which named him one of the awardees of the Gawad Scriba Award for Science Communicators in 2013. He left the post after receiving a Fulbright scholarship to MIT in 2017.

Career

Literary writing

In 2009 he was chosen to be a Fellow for English Fiction at the Iligan National Writers' Workshop, held at Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology in Iligan City.

In 2010 he also contributed the story "Keeper of My Sky" to Volume 5 of Philippine Speculative Fiction, which by then was being edited by Nikki Alfar and Vincent Simbulan. In 2014, the same story was optioned Paolo Chikiamco's Mythology-oriented anthology "Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology". In 2012, Dimacali was also selected as a Fellow for Fiction at the Silliman University National Writers Workshop, held at Silliman University in Dumaguete.

His work regularly graces the pages of anthologies such as Kestrel Publishing's Philippine Speculative Fiction series and Paolo Chikiamco's Alternative Alamat, as well as magazines such as Philippine Graphic and Summit Media's Kwentillion. His story “Sky Gypsies” has also been adapted into a comic book, with John Ray "JR" Bumanglag as artist, coming out in the pages of Kwentillion magazine.

GMA News Online

When GMA News and Public Affairs launched its online presence in the form of GMA News Online in 2009, Dimacali became the portal's online community manager. In 2010, GMA News Online created the post of Science and Technology Editor, and asked Dimacali to come on board. Under Dimacali, GMA News Online became noted for its coverage of basic science stories–in contrast to most Philippine news venues, whose science and technology coverage has thus far either tended to focus on consumer technology, or relegated to special sections that only get published occasionally.

In July 2013, the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST) awarded Dimacali with a DOST Gawad Scriba Award for Science Communicators.

Science education and consultancy work

In 2020, Dimacali was tapped as a communications consultant for the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), and the Probe Media Foundation.

As part of their response to the various quarantines arising from the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in the Philippines, the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology tapped Dimacali as writer alongside Jeffrey Hidalgo as film director for their 20-minute "TuklaSiyensya sa Eskwela" Science education modules. These were designed to be used by both public and private schools who had to shift to teaching Science via distance mode while the COVID-19 crisis remained unresolved.

Dimacali also regularly contributes to Batobalani Magazine and Asian Scientist Magazine.

Controversy

Iligan Workshop incident

In August 2019, a Twitter user named Angely Chi claimed that Dimacali had sexually assaulted a participant of the 2019 Iligan Writer's Workshop, in which Dimacali was a guest speaker. Dimacali maintained his innocence through social media and through an affidavit he submitted to the Commission on Human Rights. The resulting legal case was dismissed with finality by Iligan City Assistant Prosecutor Shirly Parmisana-Bisnar in January 2020 as the prosecution found that the sexual act had been instigated by the alleged victim, who asked witnesses to leave the room while Dimacali was passed out on his back. In January 2022, police arrested Angely Chi, charging her with cyber libel under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

See also

*GMA News and Public Affairs
*Howie Severino

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimacali, Timothy James
Living people
Filipino journalists
Filipino science journalists
Filipino online journalists
Filipino male short story writers
Filipino short story writers
Filipino speculative fiction writers
1980 births
Filipino writers
Writers from Metro Manila
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
University of the Philippines Diliman alumni