Dr. Hector H. Hernandez joined the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology as Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on the studying the role soil microbes play in the global cycling of carbon dioxide (CO2). Soils store a significant pool of CO2. Understanding (1) which specific microbial communities, (2) what metabolic pathways are involved, and (3) how these communities respond over spatial and temporal scales are crucial for the development of management strategies and technologies aimed at the capture and long-term storage of CO2.

Prior to joining the program, Dr. Hernandez was a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his PhD in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. For his graduate work, Hector investigated the redox regulation in Archaea. In particular, he studied the NADPH dependent thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase system and how this system provides reducing equivalents to ribonucleotide reductase, the enzyme which makes all the building blocks for DNA damage and repair.

Professor Hernandez integrates his knowledge of microbiology, enzymology, chemistry, and systems biology to develop model systems geared towards (1) the culture and isolation of new microbes from the environment, (2) the identification and characterization of microbial derived molecules, and (3) the development of new methods for engineering microbes to perform desired chemical reactions for use in the pharmaceutical and bioremediation sectors.