Domenica Garzón. Domenica Garzon (Quito, December 11)  is one of the first female theoretical physicists from Ecuador, recognized by the MIT Technology Review of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of the top innovators in Latin America in the year 2022.

She is the co-founder of the Rikuna Center, a program that brings scientific research to vulnerable communities in Ecuador,  and Water-Y, a project that seeks to use physics to solve water scarcity problems.

Research
Her research projects include astrophysics, and condensed matter.

Astrophysics 
She conducts her research on gravitational waves at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (Canada).

Condensed matter
Within this area, she conducted research with  topological defects and graphene.

Months after the April 2016 earthquake that shook much of northern Ecuador's coast, access to clean water was a recurring problem, which led to the idea of solving this issue.  Garzón, together with students from Yachay Tech University, invented a coating that makes this condensation process more efficient. The coating is an organic nanomaterial that increases the amount of water that can be condensed. The process ensures that the water is clean, as the condensation process is a natural purification process.

Exploration
Domenica is the co-founder of the "Rikuna" center ("to observe" in the indigenous Kichwa language). An interdisciplinary project that combines research, exploration, and scientific dissemination in the less explored areas of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In the first exploration, Domenica and the members of the Rikuna project discovered the first Cretaceous reptile reported in Ecuador. This was the first time a Mosasaur has been reported in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Honors

In 2024, she became the first Ecuadorian Physicists to receive the AAUW doctoral fellowship (US).

In 2022, she was recognized by the MIT Technology Review magazine of MIT as one of the top innovators under 35 in Latin America.

In 2015, Domenica received the Abdón Calderón award from the mayor of the city of Quito for academic excellence.

In 2022, she became the first person in history to achieve the highest grade and be recognized by the School of Physics at Yachay Tech University as summa cum laude, where she was also acknowledged as the best undergraduate researcher.

In 2019, she received a bronze medal in the global physics contest, the university physics competition, with her team from Ecuador being the only South American team to receive a medal that year.

Early years
She grew up in the city of Quito, Ecuador. She completed her primary education at Virgilio Drouet school and her secondary education at La Dolorosa Private School. Later, she moved to the province of Imbabura to continue her studies at Yachay Tech University. After a few years, she decided to move to the United States to continue her research at the University of Illinois.

References

Alumni by university or college in Ecuador
21st-century Ecuadorian women
20th-century Ecuadorian women
Women inventors
Theoretical physicists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
20th-century inventors