Dr. Esperanza J. Carcache de Blanco selected as new fellow for American Society of Pharmacognosy

Esperanza J. Carcache de Blanco, MS, PhD, RPh (Nicaragua), associate professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, has been selected as a new fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) for 2026.

This lifetime honor is bestowed on members who have demonstrated continued exceptional contributions to the sciences that the ASP promotes. These members have records of sustained high-level achievement within their subdisciplines. 

The nomination process was open to the whole ASP membership. The Fellows Selection Committee received multiple nominations and considered several factors, including:  record of continuing, exceptional contributions to the sciences promoted by ASP; record of leadership and advocacy for Natural Product sciences; contributions to training the next generation of researchers working in ASP-related fields; and contributions to natural product sciences. The number of fellows is limited to only 5% of the membership of ASP.  

Dr. Carcache de Blanco most recently served as a member and as chair of the Awards Committee from 2022 to 2025, and earlier as a member of the International/International Relationships, Job Service, Scientific and Sponsorship committees.

In other scientific service duties, she has been a frequent ad hoc grant reviewer for the NIH and certain international funding agencies, such as L’Oréal-UNESCO. She is an associate editor of the Springer-Nature publication Medicinal Chemistry Research and an editorial board member of Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology (Oxford University Press, UK) and has served as a visiting consultant for the International Agency for Cancer Research of the World Health Organization (Lyon, France). 

"Dr. Esperanza Carcache de Blanco has received a considerable external honor in being selected as a new lifetime fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP)," said A. Douglas Kinghorn, PhD, DSc, professor and Jack L. Beal Chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. "The present ASP fellows are primarily faculty members of colleges of pharmacy and departments of chemistry, and were chosen for this considerable accolade primarily because of their continuing, high-level contributions to natural products research. This new senior-level recognition is indeed a very proud achievement in her academic career.”

In addition, Dr. Carcache de Blanco has a sustained record of scholarship record inclusive of over 100 peer-reviewed research articles as well as 28 review articles and book chapters and several issued U.S. patents. She has an h-index of 32 with over 3,400 citations in relation to her published work (Elsevier Scopus database). She has also received several research funding awards during her career from the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Dr. Carcache de Blanco has given a number of national and international invited scientific talks and has presented at conferences regularly, including over 90 oral and poster presentations at previous American Society of Pharmacognosy annual meetings.

In 1988, she was recognized as an Outstanding Instructor by the Asociación Nicaragüense de Educadores de Nicaragua. As a faculty member at the College of Pharmacy, she was nominated for the 2016 Bachelor of Science in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has served on committees for the Graduate School and the Council on Student Affairs at Ohio State in relation to graduate student teaching. 

Altogether, she has served as the thesis and dissertation advisor or co-advisor for over 20 students, with two currently under her guidance. In addition, about a dozen postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars have been mentored, as well as numerous undergraduate researchers.