Rigoberto Hernandez of Johns Hopkins re-elected to board of world’s largest scientific society

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2016 — Rigoberto Hernandez, Ph.D., The Gompf Family Professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has been re-elected to the board of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. During his second three-year term, he will again represent District IV, with more than 25,000 ACS members in 12 states stretching from Florida to southern New Mexico.

Hernandez attended Princeton University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in chemical engineering and mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Advances in chemical science and innovation depend critically on public and private support,” says Hernandez. “Advocacy for such efforts can succeed only if we make our science understandable to the public — particularly high-risk, high-potential science that tends to receive less funding when budgets are tight.”

Hernandez lives in Baltimore with his wife, Amy, and their son, after having spent 20 years in Atlanta and rising to the rank of professor of chemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.