Derek Hernandez

Derek Hernandez has a diverse work experience starting from 2004 as a Supplier Quality Assurance Technician at Hospira, later as a Technology Resource Intern at Albemarle in 2006 where they were trained to plan and pilot bench-scale processes, and then as an Environmental Affairs Intern at Eastman Chemical Company in 2007. Derek continued to work as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at Jan Genzer's Laboratory in the same year. From 2012-2013, they also worked as a Principal and Associate at Texas Venture Labs. In between these roles, they earned a Ph.D. in 2014 from The University of Texas at Austin, where they also worked as a Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow between 2014 and 2020. Derek then moved on to work at TeVido BioDevices, Inc as a Research Scientist from 2015-2017. In 2020, they started working at ION Biosciences as an Assay Design Lead and later was promoted as Director, R&D in 2021. Currently, they hold the position of CEO in the same company.

Derek Hernandez earned a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2008. Then, they pursued and completed their Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin from 2008 to 2014.