In conjunction with Women of Color magazine, the Women of Color STEM DTX Conference has hosted a multicultural event annually since 1995.
The conference has been the premier forum of choice for recognizing the significant contributions of women in the STEM fields.
As the community gears up for the upcoming conference (Oct-3-5), WOC Online is celebrating trailblazing Latinas for National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15).
Vivian Incera, an accomplished theoretical physicist, received an award for leadership in College-level Promotion of Education at the 2014 WOC STEM Conference.
Incera earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics from Havana University in Cuba and her Ph.D. in Physics from the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow.
In 2014, she held the Dr. C. Sharp Cook Chair in Physics and was a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP).
During her tenure, she focused on improving the physics program and is credited with saving the department.
Dr. Incera began a five-year term as the physics chair in 2009 when the program was struggling. Only fifteen majors were recorded in the fall of 2008, and 22 when she arrived.
During this time, she improved research funding and faculty productivity, increased the graduate student body, raised physics primary enrollment to 100+, and boosted the physics graduation rate from low single digits to double digits.
While Dr. Incera was working on improving the department, the state of Texas reviewed all public university programs with graduation rates below a specific benchmark, leading to the closure of several underperforming physics programs.
However, the UTEP physics program was saved due to its clear improvements in all indicators.
In 2014, Dr. Incera won a grant from the National Science Foundation and she shifted her focus to mentoring and an innovative physics bridge program she created with research institutions like MIT, the University of Arizona, UT Austin, and the University of Chicago.
The bridge program aimed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities and women earning doctorates in physics.
The program successfully placed several UTEP physics majors in competitive physics Ph.D. programs by the time Dr. Incera received her WOC STEM award in 2014.
In the spring of 2024, Dr. Incera stepped down as Dean of the College of Sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and transitioned to a faculty role.
Since joining UTRGV in the fall of 2019, she has helped propel the College of Sciences forward. As dean of the College of Sciences, she collaborated with fellow deans, pursuing excellence in all aspects of the college and enhancing student success.
According to the Provost's open letter of appreciation, Incera navigated the college during the COVID pandemic and advanced several projects, including the Stargate Technology Center and grant productivity, which included 1.2 million dollars from NASA's Office of STEM Engagement, and the recent start of the AgDiscovery Program for local high school students.
With over thirty years of academic experience, the last eighteen in administrative roles at public institutions, she has significantly contributed to understanding the properties of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions.
She is best known for elucidating the effects of strong magnetic fields on the color superconducting phases that develop at high baryon densities. She has been a visiting scholar at many international institutions.
In 2019, Dr. Incera was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Physical Society (APS) and the APS Council, where she served a full term.
Over the last three years, she also served on the APS Financial Committee and the Committee of Prizes and Awards.
Dr. Incera has an extensive record of publications and grant support, including several awards from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Her research interests have included the interface of high-energy physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, condensed matter, and more formal quantum field theory problems.
She has worked on several projects to increase the representation and success of women faculty in the STEM disciplines, foster diversity in the faculty and student bodies, and increase student success through innovative teaching and mentoring approaches, as well as creating more student research opportunities.
