PROFESSOR Alcona Mae Baltazar of the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Cavite State University (CvSU-CAS) in Indang, Cavite won the Best Paper Award under the Professional and Graduate Student category, the Author Impact Award, and Best in Oral Presentation during the 3rd Asian Virtual Conference on Interdisciplinary Research 2023 (AVCIR 2023) held via Zoom held on June 7 and 8, 2023.

Her paper was titled 'Conserving Waxplants One Vein at a Time: Leaf Architecture of the Hoya R. Br. Sections.' Her adviser and co-author, Dr. Inocencio Buot Jr., is from the University of the Philippines-Open University (UPOU) and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).