PhD Math graduate from Ateneo de Manila University Professor Emeritus at De La Salle University Specialization in graph theory Over 100 published papers in graph theory Teaching graduate and undergrad

Severino was my math professor back in university. He would enter the room quietly with just a chalk in hand, and I could see in the way he taught that he knew each topic like the back of his hand. His competence and passion for teaching and math itself made it easier for me to understand the lessons. He definitely made my learning experience a lot more fun.

Severino was my undergrad and graduate professor at MSU IIT. He was also my thesis adviser for my graduate thesis. During my college course, he taught calculus and his style of teaching made me realize how wonderful mathematics and logic is , very akin to law which would have been my course had i been given the chance. So i pursued B.S. Math instead of my then enrolled course and never looked back. From my experience, I think his success in teaching is because he not only knows his subject excellently but he also takes the time to know us, his students and our strengths and weaknesses and thus tailor fit his teaching/ tutoring style so we could be our best and turn in our best work.
When i was working on my thesis and showed him excitedly my preliminary results , he said that it was good but could i produce the proof ( it was a long standing unproven problem), which eventually i was able to do so. During my defense, one of the panel members said, my work was so easy and shouldnt even be considered... for the first time ever, my adviser severino stood up and said " easy now because you have already seen how it was done " . That sentence has in a way guided me until now in dealing with my own students and life, how to teach and do things so the path to learning and doing, though hard, would produce a result so fine the unlearned would feel it was easy to achieve . For me, his wisdom extends far beyond numbers and theories and proofs. He knows how to challenge the intellect and guide to maximize learning.
He was my best math teacher among my awesome professors.