Angel Alcala

In 2018, he was named a member of the Fulbright Philippines Hall of Fame.

In November 2018, he was awarded Oceans Legend by PEMSEA during the East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress in Iloilo City.

In 2017, Alcala was named an ASEAN Biodiversity Hero. He was also previously the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary in the Philippines.

Alcala has also worked to protect the lives of giant clams in the Philippines. He worked alongside Dr. Edgardo Gomez to assess the organisms' status in 1983. After thorough evaluation of Bolinao waters, they learned that the numbers were insufficient. Gomez and Alcala retrieved young giant clams from the Solomon Islands to breed back in Bolinao. After their work, the giant clam population has increased significantly to ensure that the ecosystem is stable. On October 25, 2014, he visited the Semirara coast where he spoke in favor of saving giant clams.

In 2014, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III Proclamation No. 782, naming Alcala a National Scientist of the Philippines in recognition of his research on ecology and diversity of Philippine amphibians and reptiles, marine biodiversity, and marine-protected areas.

In 1999, he was awarded the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation for his continued, exceptional work in marine conservation.

In 1994, he received the Field Museum Founders' Council Award of Merit for his contributions to environmental biology.

In 1992, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation awarded Alcala the Ramon Magsaysay Award and acknowledged him for pioneering scientific leadership in restoring and conserving the coral reefs of the Philippines.

In 1963, Alcala was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences in the category for Organismal Biology & Ecology.

In 1959, Angel Alcala earned the Fulbright-Smith Mundt master's fellowship in Stanford University's biology department.

In 1951, Angel Alcala earned his bachelor's degree in biology (magna cum laude) from Silliman University. He then declined acceptance to the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in order to assist his family. During that time, he occasionally assisted in biological fieldwork, for example for Sidney Dillon Ripley and Dioscoro Rabor in 1953 when they collected the only known (as of 2019) specimen of the Negros fruit dove. Alcala later attended Stanford University to complete his master's degree after 9 years. By 1966, he earned his Ph.D. in the same field and an honor doctorate from both the Xavier University and the University of Southeastern Philippines. Alcala later became a professor at Silliman University, where he also served as president for two consecutive years. He served as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from 1992 to 1995 and chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) from 1995 to 1999. He also served as consultant on marine and aquatic projects under the United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Bank Global Environment Facility, the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, and the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute.

Angel Chua Alcala, ONS, (born March 1, 1929) is a Filipino biologist who was named a National Scientist of the Philippines in 2014. Alcala is known for his fieldwork to build sanctuaries and to promote biodiversity in the aquatic ecosystems of the Philippines. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Advisers at the Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management located in Silliman University. Responsible for publishing more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and books, his biological contributions to the environment and ecosystems have made him a renowned hero for natural sciences in the Philippines.

Alcala was born on March 1, 1929 in the municipality of Cauayan, Negros Occidental. He was raised by a moderately low-income family in the small coastal town of Calling, Philippines. Alcala worked alongside his father who worked as a fisherman at the nearby agricultural fish ponds. Due to his family's financial struggles, they depended on the ocean for its resources either in providing food or items to sell.