Rigoberto Hernandez

Born in Havana, Hernandez moved to Spain with his family when he was a small 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 sparked an interest in science. He attended Princeton University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and mathematics. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

After serving on the chemistry faculty at Georgia Tech for 20 years, Hernandez came to Johns Hopkins in 2016. He has special interests in the dynamics of chemical reactions, transition state theory 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, is funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy. For his work in diversity, Hernandez received the ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences in 2013. He also won the 2015 Diversity Award from the Council for Chemical Research.

In recognition of his research and service in the southeast, Hernandez was awarded the 2017 Herty Medal. He is a Cottrell Scholar and received a 2016 Transformational Research and Excellence in Education (TREE) Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. He has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004), the ACS (2010) and the American Physical Society (2011).

In the fall of 2016, Hernandez was elected to his second three-year term as a board member of the ACS.