Former astronaut Jose Hernandez will deliver LBJ Distinguished Lecture

<div class="newscaption">Former Astronaut Jose Hernandez</div>

Former NASA astronaut José Hernández will deliver the Lyndon Baines Johnson Distinguished Lecture at Texas State University Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in Evans Auditorium.

The free lecture is in conjunction with the 2018-2019 university-wide Common Experience academic theme: Innovation.

Hernández was born in 1962 in French Camp, California, to Mexican immigrant parents who worked as migrant laborers. Each year the family traveled from Mexico to California and picked crops as they traveled. Hernandez did not learn English until he was 12 years old.

“He was an Upward Bound student,” said Twister Marquiss, Director of Texas State’s Common Experience. “That was one of the Federal TRiO Programs established by the Higher Education Act, which President Johnson signed on the Texas State campus in 1965. So President Johnson’s vision paved the way for José Hernández to reach for the stars, literally. It’s fitting that Hernández will deliver the LBJ Distinguished Lecture because of his truly inspirational story and his connection to our most famous alumnus and the event’s namesake.

Eventually the family settled in Stockton, California, where young José enjoyed math and science in school. He first began dreaming of going into space after watching the Apollo 17 moon landing. In 1980, he learned NASA had chosen astronaut and Costa Rican native Franklin Chang-Diaz as one of the first Hispanics to journey into space. Hernández said in a NASA interview he still remembers the moment he heard the news. “I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps. I was already interested in science and engineering, but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’

Jose Hernandez earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from University of the Pacific. (Photo credit: Jose Hernandez)

Hernández earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific in 1984 and a master’s in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986.

He spent 15 years working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he co-developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system for the early detection of breast cancer. This opened a new area of research called computer-aided diagnosis. Hernández was later honored by the U.S. Department of Energy with an outstanding performance commendation for this contribution. While at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he also worked on the development of a space deployed X-Ray laser as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

In 2001, Hernández joined the Johnson Space Center as a NASA materials research engineer. He was rejected 11 times before being selected for the astronaut training program. In 2009, he served aboard the STS-128 Discovery as mission specialist and was the first person to use Spanish in space when he tweeted from the spacecraft. The Discovery traveled more than 5.7 million miles in 14 days with the mission to finish construction on the International Space Station.

Today, Hernández is CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering. He created the José M. Hernández Reaching for the Stars Foundation to educate students and the community about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. He has written his autobiography, Reaching for the Stars, and a children’s version, The Boy Who Touched the Stars.

Hernández has received numerous awards and honors, including two NASA Service Awards, the Society of Mexican America Engineers and Scientists “Medalla de Ora,” Upward Bound National TriO Achiever Award, and seven honorary doctorate degrees.