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Elma L. González (born June 6, 1942) is a Mexican-born American plant cell biologist. She is Professor Emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
. In 1974, she was appointed professor of cell and molecular biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the time, she was the only Mexican American woman scientist in the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
system faculty. Professor Martha Zúñiga at the
University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...
, appointed in 1990, was the second. In 2004, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science recognized González with a Distinguished Scientist Award.


Early life and education

González was born in Ciudad Guerrero, in
Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...
, Mexico. She is the daughter of Efigenia and Nestor González, both migrant farm workers. At the age of six, her parents brought her to the U.S. Her interest in biology began by observing the animals and wildlife on the ranch her father worked on. She did not start school until the age of nine. As a teenager growing up in
South Texas South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...
, and during college, Gonzalez worked as a migrant farm worker with her family picking cucumbers, cotton, and sugar beets. Traveling with her family to pick crops meant that González and her siblings started school late each year. Gonzalez went to college at Texas Women's University (TWU) in Denton,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
where she studied biology and chemistry and graduated in 1965. She later worked in a laboratory at Baylor Medical School in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, Texas, which motivated her to pursue graduate school in biology. She received her PhD in
cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...
from
Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
in 1972, for a dissertation titled "Peroxisomes and the Regulation of the Capacity for Assimilation of Two-Carbon Units in ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae''". She did postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Professor Harry Beevers at
UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...
.


Career and service

González is one of the founding members of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, an organization which was founded in 1973. In 1977, as an assistant professor, González was awarded a grant from the National Chicano Council on higher education sponsored by the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
. The grant was designed to increase the number of
Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...
faculty in U.S. higher education. She was promoted to associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981, and then to full professor in 1993. At UCLA, González was the director of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program funded by the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
to support undergraduates completing their education and research projects in science. In a news article printed in 1991, it alluded to her work as having been a part of a group of board members that reviewed proposals of the NSF's new Alliance for Minority Participation Program to better prepare & bring in minority students into the science and engineering programs. In 2005, she was the recipient of the University of California, Los Angeles' first Distinguished Teaching Award for "superb mentorship" to undergraduates engaged in scholarly activities.


Research

González is a
plant cell Plant cells are the cells present in Viridiplantae, green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids ...
biologist who studied the biological process of
calcification Calcification is the accumulation of calcium salts in a body tissue. It normally occurs in the formation of bone, but calcium can be deposited abnormally in soft tissue,Miller, J. D. Cardiovascular calcification: Orbicular origins. ''Nature M ...
in a group of
algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
known as
coccolithophorids Coccolithophores, or coccolithophorids, are single-celled organisms which are part of the phytoplankton, the autotrophic (self-feeding) component of the plankton community. They form a group of about 200 species, and belong either to the kingdo ...
. She has written about the unusual ability of coccolith
vacuole A vacuole () is a membrane-bound organelle which is present in Plant cell, plant and Fungus, fungal Cell (biology), cells and some protist, animal, and bacterial cells. Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water ...
s to facilitate calcification, a significant part of the global carbon cycle. An
ATPase ATPases (, Adenosine 5'-TriPhosphatase, adenylpyrophosphatase, ATP monophosphatase, triphosphatase, ATP hydrolase, adenosine triphosphatase) are a class of enzymes that catalyze the decomposition of ATP into ADP and a free phosphate ion or ...
removes protons in exchange for ATP from the vacuole, allowing the formation of carbon dioxide, a mechanism linking
photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...
with calcification. She has suggested that an increase in
ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ...
together with increased nutrients might negatively impact the adaptive value of calcification.


Personal life

González's life story was part of an anthology of autobiographies by Chicanas in STEM, edited by Norma E. Cantú.


Selected publications

* Kwon, Duck-Kee; González, Elma L. 2004. Localization of Ca2+-stimulated ATPase in the coccolith-producing compartment of cells of ''Pleurochrysis'' sp. (Prymnesiophyceae). ''Journal of Phycology'' 30(4):689 - 695. DOI:10.1111/j.0022-3646.1994.00689.x * Corstjens, Paul; González, Elma L. 2004. Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus availability on the expression of the coccolith-vesicle V-ATPase (subunit c) of ''Pleurochrysis'' (Haptophyta). Journal of Phycology 40(1):82-87. DOI:10.1046/j.1529-8817.2004.02154.x * Araki, Yoko; González Elma L. 2002. V- and P-type Ca2+-stimulated ATPases in a calcifying strain of ''Pleurochrysis'' sp. (Haptophyceae). Journal of Phycology 34(1):79 - 88. DOI:10.1046/j.1529-8817.1998.340079.x *Israel, Alvaro A; Gonzalez, Elma L. 1996. Photosynthesis and inorganic carbon utilization in ''Pleurochrysis'' sp. (Haptophyta), a coccolithophorid alga. Marine Ecology Progress Series 137(1-3). DOI:10.3354/meps137243


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Elma 1942 births Living people Mexican biologists American biologists Mexican women scientists Hispanic and Latino American women scientists Texas Woman's University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty American people of Mexican descent People from Tamaulipas 21st-century American women American women biologists Hispanic and Latino American scientists