Biography

Florencio “Eloy” Hernandez serves as Director, guiding the transition to merge the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistics and Data Science into a single school. This marks a significant step forward in unifying and advancing UCF’s quantitative sciences.

Hernandez obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela) in collaboration with L’Université Franche Comté (France) in 1996. Following that, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research from 1996 to 1998, and as a Visiting Research Scientist at the College of Optics/CREOL (UCF) between 1998 and 2002. In 2002, he joined the Department of Chemistry at UCF as an Assistant Professor and advanced through the ranks to become a full professor. Throughout his career, Hernandez has authored over 100 articles in peer reviewed journals and holds three US patents. He has also contributed to more than 100 national and international conferences (36 as an invited speaker) and has secured over five million dollars in external funding from various national agencies and private sector organizations (including NSF, DOE, DoD, Lockheed Martin, Kraft Food, and IAI) to support his research.

Throughout his career, Hernandez has been dedicated to imparting knowledge, developing critical thinking, and understanding how students from the new generation learn. He is also passionate about designing new strategies to support faculty, students, and staff in his academic community. Several years ago, Hernandez made a firm commitment to become an educational leader and administrator, helping others grow in their roles and achieve their full potential. With this goal in mind, he earned his MBA from UCF in 2018. He participated in several leadership programs at UCF, including the Academic Leadership Academy and the Provost Faculty Fellow program, to gain a deeper understanding of academic administration. During the last seven years, he developed an exceptional interest in institutional academic affairs. In June 2019, he became the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at the College of Community Innovation and Education at UCF, and in February 2023, he embarked on a new journey as the Inaugural Dean of the College of Science at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.