Justine Lopez

Mathematician Biography

EDC 715

Minerva Cordero Braña is a Puerto Rican mathematician and a professor of mathematics

at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is also the university's Senior Associate Dean for the
College of Science, where she is responsible for the advancement of the research mission of the
college. President Biden awarded her the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science,
Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) on February 8, 2022.
Puerto Rico's Bayamón is where Cordero was born. Education was a high priority in the
family home, as evidenced by her mother, who dropped out of school after the fifth grade. While
doing their homework, Cordero and her siblings would talk about the lessons they had learned
that day in class. According to Cordero, "We learned each other's subjects." In high school,
Cordero prepared for the college entrance exam by purchasing a book on test-taking strategies.
She was determined to attend college. She claims that she received the highest exam scores
possible at Miguel Melendez Munoz High School, her high school.

Cordero studied at the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, where she graduated in
1981 with a B.S. in mathematics. In 1983, she completed her master's degree in mathematics at
the University of California, Berkeley, thanks to a National Science Foundation Minority
Graduate Fellowship. She pursued her education at the University of Iowa, where she worked
with Norman Johnson to earn her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1989.

Cordero's research is in the area of finite semi fields (non-associative algebras) and their
associated planes (viewed affinely or projectivity) in the general area of finite geometry.