Over a span of 25 years, Calderón-Urrea has stood side by side with many successful
graduates, sharing similarities such as being the first from his family to obtain
a higher education.
Calderón-Urrea was born in Colombia. He received his bachelor’s in genetics from the
Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Soon after, he began work for the International
Institute of Agriculture. However, Calderón-Urrea wanted to further his education,
so he began to seek opportunities. He obtained a scholarship to attend Vrije Universiteit
in Brussels, Belgium. There he received a master’s and specialized in plant molecular
biology. After a year working in Colombia, Dr. Calderón-Urrea received a fellowship
from the Rockefeller Foundation to undertake PhD studies at Yale University. At Yale
he worked under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen L. Dellaporta; the focus of his research
was to understand the molecular genetics of sex determination in corn (Zea mays).
After completing his PhD Dr. Calderón-Urrea move to California (to the Plant Gene
expression Center, a research institute formed by USDA and UC-Berkeley) to work on
his post-doctoral training with Dr. Barbara Baker. In Dr. Baker’s laboratory he worked
to identify the minimum requirements for the TMV to elicit a hypersensitive response
in tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum). In August 1997 Dr. Calderón-Urrea joined Fresno State.
During his career at Fresno State, he has taught courses from Introductory Biology
to Developmental Biology and Biotechnology and Society. More than one hundred undergraduate
students and thirty graduate students have conducted research under his supervision
(twenty-five graduate students have completed their MS under his supervision). Nine
post-doctoral scientist (including three visiting scientist) have received training
in his laboratory.
Dr. Calderón-Urrea has been a tireless advocate for the inclusion of under-represented
students into the research enterprise of the U.S.A. For example, he participated in
the United States Department of Agriculture Hispanic Serving Institutions Fellows
Program; through this program he helped identify suitable institutions interested
in mentoring minority students. Through a grant from the USDA for the Rice Genomics
Consortium (of which he was Co-PI), he sent three students (two Hispanics and one
Filipino) to conduct summer research at Yale University. He maintains this collaboration
with Yale and every year Yale University, through the STARS program, accepts 1-3 undergraduate
minority students from Fresno State to spend the summer conducting research with Yale
faculty (a total of fifteen students have benefited from this opportunity over the
years). Dr. Calderón-Urrea received the two thousand Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award
presented by the McNair Program at Fresno State. He received tenure and promotion
to associate professor two years earlier than the normal tenure timeframe because
of his outstanding contributions to the Department of Biology and the University,
but particularly because of contributions to mentoring minority students. In 2008
he was the recipient of the Andreoli Biotechnology Service Award, the highest faculty
honor given by the California State University Program for Education in Research and
Biotechnology (CSUPERB). In 20018 Dr. Calderón-Urrea was recognized with The Dunhuang
Award, Gansu Province (PR China) government’s highest honor.
Dr. Calderón-Urrea has been a visiting professor at: Biotechnology Institute, University
of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium; the Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica; the Universidad
Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil; Gansu Agricultural
University (GSAU), Lanzhou, China; and the María de Maeztu, Visiting Professor, Universidad
de Cordoba (UCO), Córdoba, Spain.
Finally, Dr. Calderón-Urrea is the founder and CSO of a biotech company (Telluris
Biotech India: https://tellurisbiotech.com/), which is developing products to protect
crops against plant parasitic nematodes.
