•My Phi Beta Kappa visit to the University of the South was covered in the Key Reporter by Lindsely Liles.

•Great visit to SERMACS/SWRM 2015 on November 4-7, 2015. Congratulations to Dr. Dennis Merat (General Chair), Dr. Abby Parrill-Baker (Program Chair), the entire Local Organizing Committee, and all our volunteer ACS members for hosting a great conference!

•Great visit to the University of the South in Sewanee for the second of my Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar lectures (October 22-23,2015)

•Great visit to the College of Wooster for the first of my Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar lectures (September 24-25,2015)

•Check out my recent C&EN Comment on “The Private Sector’s Role In Chemistry’s Future.”  (September 21, 2015)

•Check out my recent C&EN Comment on “Diversity in Academia: Solutions To Get There.” (August 24, 2015)

•District IV Fall’15 Caucus slides available here: 15_08-Division_IV_Caucus.pdf

•Find me at the ACS Fall 2015 National Meeting in Boston, MA:

★Open Board Meeting in the Convention Center, Ballroom West, at noon to 1:00PM on Sunday, August 16th.

★District IV Caucus on Sunday, August 16th, at 6:00PM in the Fairbax B of the Sheraton Boston Hotel

★CMA lunch on Monday, August 17th

★WCC lunch on Tuesday, August 18th

★ChemLuminaries on Tuesday, August 18th, at the Westin Copley Place Boston in the America Ballroom.

•I was awarded the 2015 Diversity Award by the Council of Chemical Research in recognition of the effort that all of the OXIDE team, collaborators, and colleagues have done to advance diversity in chemistry departments.

•District IV Spring’15 Caucus slides available here: 15_03-Division_IV_Caucus.pdf

•Find me at the following events in the ACS Spring 2015 National Meting in Denver, CO:

★Open Board Meeting at the Four Seasons Ballroom 4 in the Colorado Convention Center from noon to 1:00PM on Sunday, March 21st.

★District IV Caucus on Sunday, March 21st, at 6:00PM in the Mineral Hall E in the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Hotel.

★I will represent us at the CMA and WCC Lunches on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

★My CHED Lecture on "Inclusive excellence in the classroom" at 2:10PM on Sunday (3/22) in the Spruce Room in the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel as part of the symposium on "Department, University, and National Models for Faculty Development to Support Adoption of Evidence-Based Teaching."

★My CHED Lecture on "Disadvantaged students: Mentors come in many shapes and notes" at 3:25PM on Monday (3/23) in the Columbine Room in the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel as part of the symposium on "ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students in Chemistry: Four-Part Harmony (or Disharmony)."

★My GEOC/COLL Lecture on "Janus, striped and coarse-grained particles" in Room 712 at 8:10AM on Tuesday (3/24) of the Colorado Convention Center as part of the symposium on "Molecular-Scale Processes Controlling Reactivity at Mineral-Water Interfaces."

•I was selected as a 2015-2016 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. Applications requesting me as a visitor are due by April 15th.

•I was quoted in the December 1, 2014 issue, volume 92, pp. 32-33 of C&EN in an article on “Cultivating A Diverse Leadership At A Member Organization.”:

Hernandez, who serves as District IV director and is the second Hispanic to serve on the ACS Board of Directors, recalls that shortly after he started as an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Tom Netzel of the ACS Georgia Section asked him to run for chair of the section. Until then, he had little knowledge about what the local section did. “Why did I agree when I was asked to do something that seemed so daunting? The answer was that I felt that it was important to contribute back to the society,” he says. “Through being a local section leader, I started to learn about what one could do in the section, and a few years later, I was asked to run for councilor. I ended up being a councilor for 10 years.

“Being on council puts you in a position to start seeing national governance and to serve on committees, and through serving on committees, you start to have a sense of what ACS does more broadly,” Hernandez says. “It’s a time commitment, but I feel that I have a voice that can help the society, and it’s exciting to be part of that change.”