Juan Alfonzo’s students and lab technicians know he is not a typical teacher.

Alfonzo, an associate professor in Ohio State’s Department of Microbiology, said he has never tried to make his students treat him as a superior.

“I like to lead by example, and I think what is good for the goose is good for the gander,” Alfonzo said. “They are free to criticize me as much as I criticize them, and I mean this wholeheartedly.”

Mary-Margaret Fill would know. She worked in Alfonzo’s research lab for over two years before graduating in 2007. Fill said she learned early to address him as “Juan,” rather than “Dr. Alfonzo.”

“He laughed the first time I called him that,” Fill said. After getting to know him, Fill said Alfonzo found the perfect balance among his roles as boss, educator, researcher, friend, confidant and peer.

Alfonzo received both his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in microbiology from Indiana University. He also did post-doctoral research at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Alfonzo originally majored in chemistry, like most of those seeking a job at the oil companies in his native country of Venezuela, he said. Chemistry came easily to him, so he switched to microbiology after taking the class as a requirement.

“It was one of those moments that I guess happens rarely in one’s life,” Alfonzo said. “I come into this class. I hear this guy teach. At the end of the first lecture I went home and I said, ‘You know, I think I want to be a microbiologist.'”

His research now focuses on transfer ribonucleic acid editing in Trypanasoma brucei. Trypsanoma brucei is a parasite that causes the fatal African sleeping sickness in impoverished areas of the world.

“Many people know the name, but don’t necessarily know how this disease is caused,” Alfonzo said. “The long-term importance is the fact there are millions of people that are infected with this disease worldwide.”

How Alfonzo ended up researching it at OSU — or in the United States, for that matter — is another story. He came to the U.S. from Venezuela when he was 17 years old to visit his sister at Indiana University.

“I came here just with the intention of spending a few months, learning English and experiencing new things,” Alfonzo said. “I kept sticking around for longer and longer, and 30 years later, I’m still here.”

After his undergraduate work, Alfonzo had to decide whether or not to pursue graduate school. In the meantime he wanted to do some research as a lab technician, but could not find a lab job.

“I had a friend that was a manager of a bakery, so I started working the bakery,” Alfonzo said. Soon after, he said his friend told him the bakery would be closing for financial reasons.

“I was standing there thinking ‘Oh my God! What am I going to do?'” Alfonzo said.

That Thursday, the professor Alfonzo had done his undergraduate research sith happened to stop by the bakery. After asking Alfonzo why he was there and without even being told the bakery was closing, the professor offered an alternative.

“Friday the bakery closed down, and Monday I had a new job as a lab tech,” Alfonzo said. “It’s funny how life is.”

The same professor later convinced Alfonzo to earn his doctorate.

Now Alfonzo has his own lab. His wife, Mary Anne Rubio, works with him there as a research scientist.

“Usually when I say this, it brings up the next question, ‘How do you guys manage?'” Alfonzo said. “For us, it has never really been a problem.”

“They are best friends, and they have a wonderful marriage,” Fill said. “I would never doubt that there were meant for each other.”

Fill, a Georgia native who is now a medical student at Mercer University, said Alfonzo and his wife became her adoptive parents while at OSU.

“I couldn’t go home on the weekends or for dinner at night,” Fill said. “Juan and Mary Anne opened their lab family to me and made me feel like I had a wonderful family and support system there at Ohio State.”

It was also not uncommon for them to attend award ceremonies, go out to dinner and have coffee breaks with her, she said.

“We talk about politics and sports,” Alfonzo said, though he says he tries to veer the conversation with his lab students toward scientific thought. “Sometimes I’m successful, and sometimes I’m not, but it’s OK.”

Alfonzo said he tries to be a mentor.

“I think — contrary to what many people think — mentorship is not limited by teaching [students] what goes on in the lab for four years,” Alfonzo said. “I think mentorship is a lifelong commitment.”

Alfonzo said the people he has worked with in the past have been mentors for life, including the professor who “saved” him from the bakery. They still communicate regularly — much like Alfonzo and Fill do.

“All in all, he’s just an incredible person, wonderful mentor and the epitome of what a professor at the Ohio State University should be,” Fill said. “Life has been busy for both of us these past six months or so, but we keep in contact as best we can. Any time I come to Columbus, I go see them.”

Fill said she has no doubt that Alfonzo and she will keep in touch for life — a sentiment that seems mutual.