Family inspiration inspired Dr. Norma Alcantar’s influential research career
Author: Whitney Pandile-Eaton and Jade Stewart
Things you’d expect to find in a chemical engineer’s office include honorary awards, patent plaques and books including Environmental Analytical Chemistry and Introduction to Thermodynamics in Chemical Engineering – Dr. Norma Alcantar at The USF office also showcases her love of life and teaching through books such as Intentional Integrity.
But hidden among the informative and inspiring material, two groups of objects stand out: a collection of cacti and owls.
The folklore wisdom of owls and the hardy yet elegantly designed cactus plants represent her life and career. They are also the embodiment of the two fundamental forces that have guided her life and career: her mother, Acrelia Alcantar, and her grandmother, Balbina Zamora.
The owl has been a symbol of wisdom since ancient Greece, recalling her grandmother’s persistence in academic pursuits; Alcantar’s mother’s advice on identity and self-determination when she reaches a fork in the road; Currently, Alcantar is counting her A decade of knowledge is passed on to the next generation—even a 2 a.m. phone call to a graduate student halfway around the world.
The cactus endured challenging circumstances through innovative adaptations and represents the teacher who inspired Alcanta’s curiosity about nature and a chance conversation in her youth that changed the trajectory of her life and career. She has been awarded more than 20 patents as a result, focusing primarily on cacti and Alzheimer’s research, and has been invited around the world for her expertise in water purification technology.
Her lips tremble as she recalls her mother and grandmother and the lessons she learned: respect for nature, self-determination, work ethics and mentorship.
“[Acrelia] “It’s the power of family,” Alcanta said of her mother, one of 12 children. “Everyone respects her.”
Her mother, who was widowed at a young age and was a tireless worker, encouraged young Norma to study hard and be confident in her abilities.
Alcantar recalls a conversation she had with her mother when she was 7 years old. She told her mother that she wished she had been born male because she believed boys had more opportunities than girls.
“‘Listen, as a girl, you can do anything you want. You can do more,” she recalled her mother saying.
One day, Alcantar said, she was talking to her grandmother about something she was doing in her high school chemistry class, and Balbina shared knowledge that would later shape Alcantar’s career: Cacti could be used to remove impurities from water.
Her grandmother grew up in the western Mexican state of Michoacán in the early 1900s. Alcanta said her grandmother told her that as a child she needed to get water from a nearby source. If the water is dirty, they boil it with cactus to clean it.
“How does this work? It just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “But when I came to the United States, that’s where my research started.”
After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mexico, Alcantar moved to Santa Barbara, California, to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Alcantar’s research focuses on a gel-like substance called mucilage, which is the result of boiling cactus pads. Mucus amplifies the ability of molecules to remove harmful substances from water and soil.
For the full story see uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/journeys-innovation.