Angela Stella Camacho

Ángela Stella Camacho Beltrán (born 5 February 1947) is a Colombian physicist. As of 2021, she is the president of the Colombian Network of Women Scientists. Camacho's main work is in condensed matter physics, solid-state physics, and low-dimensional physics. She was the first Colombian woman to obtain a PhD in physics.

Education Camacho was born in Bogotá. In 1966, she started her studies at the National University of Colombia, where she received her degree in physics in 1970. Camacho then travelled to Germany and obtained a Diplom-physikerin at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in 1973. In 1977, she was awarded a Dr. rer. nat. by the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, West Germany. She was the first Colombian woman to obtain a doctorate in physics.

Camacho has been a member of six national and international scientific associations; she was an Associate Member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics between 1984 and 1990. She has been active in the Colombian Physics Society, starting in 1980 as a Coordinator of the Northeast Chapter (1980–1982). Later, Beltrán became the Society's Secretary of the Central Chapter (1993–1995), Principal Member of the Board of Directors (1995–1997), Secretary of the Board of Directors (1999–2001), Vice President (2001–2003) and then Coordinator of the Central Chapter (2002–2004). She is also an expert in semiconductor nanostructures, optical and electronic properties, and nanostructures dynamics.

Outreach and advocacy Camacho is active in supporting and promoting women in science. She was a Leader for Colombia in the Movement of Women in Physics in Paris (March 2002). and as of 2021 is President of the Colombian Network of Women Scientists, In an interview in 2019, Camacho says that gender biases in young children's games can affect how they feel about science in the future, and states that there is still work to be done in her country towards gender equality in science.

Recognitions and awards

Associate Member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, 1984-1990 Award for Scientific Production, COLCIENCIAS, 1990. Member of the incentive program for researchers, COLCIENCIAS, 1994 and 1996 Member of the Research Group selected in the COLCIENCIAS Special Call for Excellence Groups, 1996. Member of the Physics of Condensed Matter group, ranked by COLCIENCIAS in category A, 1999 Member of the Physics of Condensed Matter group, ranked by COLCIENCIAS in category A, 2001 Leader for Colombia at the Movement of Women in Physics, Paris, March 2002 Leader for Colombia at the IX.e network of the CYTED Microelectronics subprogram, 1999-2003 National Colombian Association for the Advancement of Science Award for excellence in research, 2003 Leader for Colombia of the CYTED NANODYF network, 2011-2014

J.C Arias and A. Camacho, ENHANCED ELECTRIC FIELD IN SHORT CHAINS OF METALLIC NANOPARTICLES OF DIFFERENT SHAPES Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Applications, 3,11,458 (2011). Jefferson Flórez and Angela Camacho, EXCITONIC EFFECTS ON THE SECOND-ORDER NONLINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF SEMI-SPHERICAL QUANTUM DOTS. Nanoscale Research Letters 6, 268, (2011). A.S. Camacho and J.F.Nossa, GEOMETRIC DEPENDENCE OF THE DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF QUANTUM DOTS ARRAYS, Microelectronics Journal 40, 835, (2009). A.S.Camacho and J.F.Nossa, GEOMETRICAL EFFECTS ON THE PROPERTIES OF1d,2d AND 3d QUANTUMDOTS SUPERCRYSTALS, 29TH Conference on Semiconductors, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, July, 2008. J.F.Nossa and A.S Camacho, OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF SUPERCRYSTALS, Microelectronics Journal 39,11, 1251(2008). H.Ramirez, A.S.Camacho and L.C.Lew Yan Voon, ELECTRON DYNAMICS IN RECTANGULAR DOUBLE DOTS, Nanotechnology, 17,1286 (2006) A.Camacho, R.M.Gutiérrez and J.L. Carrillo, SCALING RELATIONS OF TUNNELING RATES IN QUANTUM WELLS SYSTEMS, phys. stat. sol. (c) 1, No. S1, S46– S49 (2004)