Prior to joining Columbia, Vincent was Deputy Director for Business Development and Operations at the Center for Advanced Technology in Ultrafast Photonics at the City University of New York (1994-2001). From 1990 to 1994, he was a Senior Project Scientist at Woodward-Clyde Consultants, an environmental sciences firm where he specialized in database management and health effects of low frequency electromagnetic fields. From 1988 to 1990, he was Director of the Center For Photonics And Imaging Science, and Professor Of Electrical Engineering And Physics at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), College Of Science And Engineering. Prior to that he served as Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, and University Grants Administrator. While at FDU, he was a consultant to Allied-Signal Corporation (now Honeywell), Guidance Systems Division, and a Visiting Research Scientist at the Institute For Chemistry, University of Genoa, Italy for which he received a Fulbright Award. Prior to his earlier academic positions, he was a Research Physicist at the Uniroyal Research Center, Polymer Physics Department. He has served on the board of directors of the Photonics Industry Association of New York and Semiconductor Laser International, Inc. He has a Ph.D. in physics from New York University where his thesis work was in experimental solid-state biophysics..