Alberto I. Roca, PhD

Roca headshotExecutive Director, DiverseScholar, a project of Community Partners
Academic Background: Biochemistry, Bioinformatics

Education

  • Ph.D., Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997
  • B.S., Biology, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, 1988

Work Experience

  • Executive Director, DiverseScholar -- a project of Community Partners, 2012 to present
  • Editor, MinorityPostdoc.org, 2004 to present
  • Director of Outreach, Recruitment, & Retention;
    Graduate Division, University of California, Irvine, 2007
  • Assistant Project Scientist, University of California, Irvine, 2005 - 2007
  • UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Irvine, 2003 - 2005
  • (NIH & NSF) Postdoctoral Fellow, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1998 - 2003

Awards

Selected Research Publications

  • Beckham JT, Dries DR, Hall BL, Mitton-Fry RM, Engelman S, Burch C, Acevedo R, Mertz PS, Vardar-Ulu D, Agrawal S, Fox KM, Roberts R, Austin S, Franzen MA, Jakubowski HV, Novak WRP, Roca AI, & Kristen Procko K. (2024) Seeing Eye to Eye? Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions of Biomolecular Visualization Assessments,
    Education Sciences 14:94
  • Shiffman DS, Arguedas-Alvarez T, Bangley CW, Boyt R, Cote IM, Daly-Engel TS, Davis ACD, Gaskins LC, Graham J, Graham RT, Johri S, Macdonald CC, Paig-Tran EWM, Roca AI, Schwieterman GD, Whitenack LB, Wiley TR, & Ferry LA (2022) What can Professional Scientific Societies do to Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Case Study of the American Elasmobranch Society.
    Frontiers in Education, 7:842618
  • Procko K, Engelman S, Jakubowski H, Beckham JT, Dean DM, Franzen MA, Novak WRP, Roberts R, Roca AI, Shor ACTerrell CR, Dries DR (2020) Meeting report: BioMolViz workshops for developing assessments of biomolecular visual literacy,
    Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 49:278–286
  • Roca AI, Coleman C-L, Haelle TS, and Lee DN (2020) The SciCommDiversity Travel Fellowship: The Challenge of Creating a Sustainable Intervention,
    Frontiers in Communication 5:51
  • Tennial RE, Solomon ED, Hammonds-Odie LH, McDowell GS, Moore M, Roca AI, Marcette J (2019) Formation of the Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research (iEMBER) Network: Building a Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,
    CBE Life Sciences 18:mr1
  • Roca AI (2018) Announcing EquitableTech: Open Source Skills Training of Minority Students,
    Research on Equity & Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, & Technology (RESPECT) 2018 Conference Proceedings (open access version)
  • Roca AI (2014) ProfileGrids: a sequence alignment visualization paradigm that avoids the limitations of Sequence Logos,
    BMC Proceedings 8(Suppl 2):S6
  • Roca AI, Abajian AC#, Vigerust DJ (2013) ProfileGrids solve the large alignment visualization problem: influenza hemeagglutinin example.
    F1000Research 2: 2
  • Roca AI, Almada AE#, Abajian AC# (2008) ProfileGrids as a new visual representation of large multiple sequence alignments: a case study of the RecA protein family.
    BMC Bioinformatics 9: 554; "highly accessed" article
  • Singleton SF, Roca AI, Lee AM, Xiao J (2007) Probing the structure of RecA-DNA filaments: advantages of a fluorescent guanine analog
    Tetrahedron 63: 3553-3566
  • Roca AI, Singleton SF (2003) Direct evaluation of a mechanism for activation of the RecA nucleoprotein filament.
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 125: 15366-15375
  • # = undergraduate protege

News, Feature, and Policy Publications & Presentations

Topics for Invited Talks, Seminars, & Presentations

Career and Professional Development Advice

  • Blogging, Tweeting, & Writing: An Online Presence for Your Career
  • Connecting Postdocs to Academic Diversity Stakeholders
  • Diversity Funding for Your Postdoctoral Research
  • Finding a Postdoc Project and Advisor
  • MinorityPostdoc & DiverseScholar Resources for Your Career
  • Preparing for Graduate School
  • Science Societies and Communities: Benefits, Diversity, & Networking

Policy Recommendations about Postdocs and Diversity

Selected Service Activities

  • Member, Advisory Committee, Understanding Interventions that Broaden Participation in Research Careers, 2013 - present
  • Member, Council of Advisors, National Postdoctoral Association, 2012 - 2017
  • FASEB/MARC Peer Mentor, 2006 - 2008

Links

Quotes Reflecting Diversity & Postdoctoral Expertise

  • Diep F., Inside the Campaign to Strip Harassers of Their Scientific Honors, Pacific Standard, July 11, 2019
    Quote: "the academy's secret nomination process serves to keep underrepresented minorities out, Roca says: "If it's a process where members refer other, potential members, then that old boys' network will just continue to repeat itself."
  • Smith-Barrow D., How Faculty Diversity Can Impact the College Years, U.S. News, Oct. 4, 2017
    Quote: "[his] website highlights faculty of color, allies and the various work that diversity proponents produce. Roca encourages college applicants to likewise pay attention to social media. It allows faculty to have a voice and be open about their support of diversity."
  • Yong E., Science's Minority Talent Pool Is Growing -- But Draining Away, The Atlantic, Nov. 22, 2016
    Quote: "If a search committee or hiring department has not made a proactive effort to attract underrepresented minority candidates, then the organization needs to try harder or face the consequence that the search is halted. Campus leadership need to exercise such power to signal diversity as a priority."
  • Keshavan M., Overwhelmingly white male lineup at a medical conference sparks 'public shaming', STAT, Aug. 15, 2016
    Quote: "this type of public shaming is important...The bottom line is, we need better interventions and solutions"
  • Zhao W., Research Spotlight: Alberto I. Roca, ASBMB Today, Feb. 2012
    Quote: "My motto is 'we're all minorities, so let's help each other' because being a minority just depends upon your context. Thus, we should all help one another achieve common goals...I live for building communities and correcting social injustice. My passion is mentoring people to achieve their potential, and this drives my diversity work."
  • Mok H. UC Postdoc program encourages diversity. UC Newsroom, Nov. 1, 2009
    Quote: "While most postdoc fellowships provide a source of funding for research, many diversity programs such as UC's also emphasize networking and mentoring, allowing people who are in a position to hire to see candidates and judge "intangibles that don't necessarily come across in a CV."
  • Hundt L. & Kurzweil J. Meaningful mentoring: Native American and Latino success stories. Science 318 (5847): 123-126 (Oct. 5, 2007)
    Quote: "The value of peer-to-peer networks is to ameliorate the difficulties that minorities can face in majority settings by sharing experiences with and finding empathy from sympathetic colleagues."
  • Bold K. Advocate for postdocs: Alberto Roca, assistant project scientist of molecular biology & biochemistry, supports unsung scholars. Today@UCI, May 22, 2007
    Quote: "Most postdocs are the engine of innovation and productivity in academia. However, they receive little respect. UCI is at the forefront of advancing postdoctoral training, but much work needs to be done. I enjoy contributing to that effort."
  • Choi CQ. It's About Who You Know...: Networks for Minority Life Scientists. The Scientist 19(Supplement 3): S45 (November 7, 2005)
    Quote: [Networking Do's and Don'ts: Don't feed into stereotypes others may have of you.] "There are times and places to be outspoken about your culture and [other times] to be more careful. At SACNAS, nobody thinks twice about speaking in Spanish, but if you're networking in an environment where many are not bilingual, they may feel awkward."
  • Gewin V. Learning to Mentor. Nature 436: 436-437 (July 21, 2005)
    Quote: "Creating an affinity group where scientists are helping students culturally, as well as professionally, is important."
  • Wampler J. Wo! Men in Science? Untold Stories of the AWIS Minority... AWIS Magazine 34(2): 26-30 (Spring 2005)
    Quote: "My outreach efforts have always centered on giving people the opportunity to achieve their potential. In the area of science, I mentor female and minority students about their interests in graduate education. I work with organizations such as AWIS and SACNAS that encourage achievement in professional sciences for traditionally underrepresented groups."
  • Arnette R. Perspectives: Preparing Postdocs of Color. ScienceCareers (formerly MiSciNet), Sept 10, 2004
    Quote: [describing bicultural mentoring:] "An immediate supervisor is the source of technical and career advice for your chosen discipline. However, someone else needs to be consulted to receive objective advice about balancing work with other responsibilities such as family, volunteer, and outreach activities."

Science Summary Biosketch

Dr. Roca was a Project Scientist in the Biochemistry Department at the University of California, Irvine where he was formerly a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow. His research involves using biophysical and bioinformatic approaches to understand the molecular mechanism of recombinational DNA repair. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has received FASEB/MARC travel awards to present his work at the annual meetings of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB/ISMB), and the Biophysical Society. At the 2010 ISMB conference, his work received second place in the inaugural Killer App Award competition. The award recognized a novel bioinformatic method for visualizing large multiple sequence alignments.

Diversity Experience

Dr. Roca is a first-generation Peruvian-American born in Houston, Texas. He was principal investigator of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant that allowed him to organize postdoctoral activities at the SACNAS conference (including the Minority Postdoc Summit) and to create the web portal www.MinorityPostdoc.org. He founded the SACNAS Postdoc Committee (2005), served on the 2008 SACNAS Program Committee, and co-founded (in 2003 with Dr. Arti Patel) the Diversity Committee of the National Postdoctoral Association. Since 2003 Dr. Roca has organized many postdoc-related activities at the SACNAS and NPA conferences. He has also been an invited speaker on minority postdoctoral issues at the following conferences:

  • Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)
  • Compact for Faculty Diversity's annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring
  • COSEPUP Second Convocation on Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience
  • Howard University/UTEP Institute on Preparing for Postdoctoral Experiences in STEM
  • UCSF Postdoc Boot Camp

In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Roca has received awards including the UC-Irvine Chancellor's Living Our Values Award as well as the SACNAS Presidential Service Award. In addition, Dr. Roca was a FASEB/MARC Peer Mentor allowing him to provide career advice to trainees at conferences such as FASEB Experimental Biology as well as at ABRCMS. Since 2010, he has been working full-time as a diversity career coach helping graduate students transition to postdoc training and helping grads/postdocs transition to professional positions. He accomplishes this by working with trainees directly as a career coach as well as by connecting institutional diversity stakeholders to job candidates. Since 2011, Dr. Roca is bridging the divide that exists between the minority and STEM blogging communities by profiling minority STEM bloggers on MinorityPostdoc.org, by curating the Diversity in Science Blog Carnivals, and by organizing sessions at the SACNAS, ScienceOnline, and LATISM conferences. Beginning in 2012, Dr. Roca's activities have been institutionalized as the non-profit, DiverseScholar -- a project of the Los Angeles-based fiscal sponsor Community Partners. This represents the non-profit's targeted audience of doctoral graduate students, postdocs, and junior professionals as well as activities involving multiple areas of diversity.

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