Rigoberto Hernandez (born 1967) is an American chemist and academic. He is The Gompf Family Professor at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

and was formerly a board member of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

(ACS). Before his appointment at Johns Hopkins, Hernandez spent 20 years as a faculty member at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

, where he became a full professor. In addition to his work as a professor, Hernandez is also the director of the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity, a program dedicated to creating more diversity in academia.

Biography

Born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Hernandez moved to Spain with his family when he was a child. The family later moved to Florida, where Hernandez attended school. When he was in high school, a research program at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

sparked an interest in science. He attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he earned an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and mathematics in 1989. Four years later, he received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. After serving on the chemistry faculty at Georgia Tech for 20 years, Hernandez moved to Johns Hopkins University in 2016. He has special interests in the dynamics of chemical reactions,

transition state theory In chemistry, transition state theory (TST) explains the reaction rates of elementary chemical reactions. The theory assumes a special type of chemical equilibrium (quasi-equilibrium) between reactants and activated transition state complexes. T ...

and non-equilibrium stochastic dynamics. Hernandez describes his area of study as "the interplay between molecular motions — such as reactions or rearrangements — and changes in their environments". Hernandez directs a program known as the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE). The program supports research and awareness into issues of diversity within chemistry departments. The program, which Hernandez started when he was at Georgia Tech, was initially funded by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

and U.S. Department of Energy, and later the

Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support or ...

. OXIDE is dedicated to creating changes in science departments by making changes from the top down. This includes creating policies that allow for more diversity and create a more inclusive environments. In the fall of 2016, Hernandez was elected to his second three-year term as a board member of the ACS.

Awards

Hernandez has received numerous awards for his work in the sciences. Listed below are some of his most well-known awards: * 1997: CAREER Award, National Science Foundation *1999: Cottrell Scholar *2004: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science *2006–2008: Humboldt Research Fellow *2010: Fellow, American Chemical Society *2011: Fellow, American Physical Society * 2011–2013: Vasser Woolley Faculty Fellow *2012: Outstanding Service Award, American Chemical Society, Georgia Local Section *2013: Diversity Champion Award, Georgia Institute of Technology *2014: Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences, American Chemical Society *2015: Diversity Award, Council for Chemical Research *2015–2016: Visiting Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa *2016: Transformational Research and Excellence in Education Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement *2017: Herty Medal, Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society *2020: Cottrell Impact Award

Notable publications

Hernandez is listed as an author on over 100 articles since 1989. Listed below are some of his most cited publications: * Murphy, C. J.; Vartanian, A. M.; Geiger, F. M.; Hamers, R. J.; Pedersen, J.; Cui, Q.; Haynes, C. L.; Carlson, E. E.; Hernandez, R.; Klaper, R. D.; et al. Biological Responses to Engineered Nanomaterials: Needs for the Next Decade. ''ACS Cent. Sci.'' 2015, ''1'' (3), 117–123. * Craven, G. T.; Hernandez, R. Lagrangian Descriptors of Thermalized Transition States on Time-Varying Energy Surfaces. ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' 2015, ''115'' (14), 148301. * Ulusoy, I. S.; Andrienko, D. A.; Boyd, I. D.; Hernandez, R. Erratum: “Quantum and Quasi-Classical Collisional Dynamics of O ₂ –Ar at High Temperatures” . Chem. Phys. 144, 234311 (2016) ''The Journal of Chemical Physics'' 2016, ''145'' (23), 239902. * Junginger, A.; Hernandez, R. Lagrangian Descriptors in Dissipative Systems. ''Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.'' 2016, ''18'' (44), 30282–30287. * Cui, Q.; Hernandez, R.; Mason, S. E.; Frauenheim, T.; Pedersen, J. A.; Geiger, F. Sustainable Nanotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges for Theoretical/Computational Studies. ''J. Phys. Chem. B'' 2016, ''120'' (30), 7297–7306. * Junginger, A.; Hernandez, R. Uncovering the Geometry of Barrierless Reactions Using Lagrangian Descriptors. ''J. Phys. Chem. B'' 2016, ''120'' (8), 1720–1725. * Craven, G. T.; Junginger, A.; Hernandez, R. Lagrangian Descriptors of Driven Chemical Reaction Manifolds. ''Phys. Rev. E'' 2017, ''96'' (2), 022222. * Buchman, J. T.; Rahnamoun, A.; Landy, K. M.; Zhang, X.; Vartanian, A. M.; Jacob, L. M.; Murphy, C. J.; Hernandez, R.; Haynes, C. L. Using an Environmentally-Relevant Panel of Gram-Negative Bacteria to Assess the Toxicity of Polyallylamine Hydrochloride-Wrapped Gold Nanoparticles. ''Environ. Sci.: Nano'' 2018, ''5'' (2), 279–288. * .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Rigoberto Living people 1967 births 21st-century American chemists Johns Hopkins University faculty Georgia Tech faculty Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Fellows of the American Chemical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society