With the passing of each academic year, Mesa College continues to be honored by the academic and professional achievements of our past and present Olympians. Those include the merits and accolades of our developing scientists in the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, which supports scholars from historically underrepresented backgrounds as they plan to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree in biomedical or behavioral science.

Bridges to the Baccalaureate scholar Emmanuel Gutierrez-Alfonzo from San Diego Mesa College was recently honored at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science annual National Research Conference in Long Beach, California for his chemistry research.

The research that received the top undergraduate chemistry award at the Oct. 13-15 conference was conducted by Gutierrez-Alfonzo and his partner Jose Rizo, a former Mesa College Bridges scholar and current student studying molecular synthesis and pharmacological chemistry at University of California, San Diego.