Angel Alcala Facts
Angel Alcala Facts
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| Interesting Angel Alcala Facts: |
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| Alcala grew up in the Philippines to a moderately low-income family in the coastal town of Calling. |
| His father was a fish farmer in the area's agricultural fish ponds, and Alcala worked by his side while growing up. |
| Due to their income and the proximity of the ocean, the family also depended on the sea for support, either in providing food or providing goods to sell; Alcala and his brothers often caught crabs and other shellfish in the reefs surrounding the town. |
| This early dependence on the ocean may have been a significant factor in Alcala's interest in studying and preserving marine ecosystems. |
| He went to Silliman University, the oldest American institution of higher education within the Philippines, and earned his bachelor's degree in biology. |
| Due to his excellent grades, he was accepted at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, but declined the opportunity due to his family's financial situation. |
| Alcala taught biology at Silliman for years after graduating there himself, while also researching and publishing important findings in herpetology with colleague Walter Brown. |
| With Brown's support and the resulting fellowships, Alcala was able to attend Stanford University to work on his Master's degree, eight years after earning his bachelor's. |
| After finishing graduate school and going on to earn his doctorate, Alcala returned to Silliman as its vice president of research and eventually as the university's president. |
| He went on to serve as the executive director of the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development, or PCARMD. |
| Alcala's thirty-year career in research included hundreds of scholarly publications in herpetology, marine biology, and other minor related fields, as well as the addition of fifty more species to the known list of reptiles and amphibians. |
| Alcala also made a highly valuable and groundbreaking contribution to marine ecosystems when he established the first artificial reef around the coastline of the Philippines, greatly boosting the ecosystem's health and viability. |
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