Arturo J. Hernández-Maldonado is a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM). He received his Ph.D. (2004) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor working with Professor Ralph Yang. Professor Hernández-Maldonado is also the director of the Nanoporous Sorbents Synthesis and Adsorption Laboratory, the X-ray Diffraction and Photoelectron Spectroscopy Facilities of UPRM, as well as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored UPR Center for the Advancement of Wearable Technologies. He also leads several other high profile projects sponsored by NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and is a leading contributor to the fields of adsorption-based space life support systems for long-term missions, and adsorption of contaminants of emerging concern from water using materials that are tailored at the nanoscale. He created the first and longest running American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting series of symposia on “Occurrence, Fate and Removal of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.” He also serves as associate editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials and the new Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters. His research work has produced several US patents and peer-review publications that span a range of topics related to synthesis, characterization, and applications of nanoporous adsorbent materials. The efforts have also earned him several recognitions, including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Separations Division / Praxair Research Award in Adsorption, the General Motors Corporation ScholarPOWER Academic Award, the NSF CAREER Award and the Great Minds in STEM Professional Achievement Award.
Research Group Website: https://academic.uprm.edu/nssal