Alma was born in Sinaloa, the agricultural heart of Mexico. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at ITSON and completed a master program in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. During this time, she studied the lignin biosynthetic pathway mutants in sorghum and maize addressing their mechanical and biochemical properties for potential applications in biofuel usage. After completing her master’s degree, she worked in the industry for a year performing research studies in medicinal plant Artemisia annua.

Alma completed her PhD at CINVESTAV, studying reproductive biology of female gametophyte development in model plant Arabidopsis. After her PhD training, she continued her research interests in plant reproductive biology for her Post Doc with studies focused on embryogenesis, fascinated by the process in an organism life cycle. A multitude of complex regulatory and developmental programs operate during embryogenesis resetting the parental genome marks, genome incompatibility, zygote genome activation, cell and tissue specifications. As these processes determine several agriculturally relevant and important traits like hybrid vigor, seed size and yield, she has been investigating them by actively pursuing her research interests in embryogenesis and seed biology of plants.

Her current research at GIFS is focused on targeted improvements in crop seeds. This research will apply her expertise and knowledge in genetics, molecular biology, genomics and reproductive biology. These studies are aimed at making key contributions towards achieving institute’s goal to enhance seed yield and agriculture productivity.