RESEARCH INTERESTS
Hector is interested in engineering materials that intelligently respond to their environment and surrounding stimuli to meet complex design challenges such as self-healing, drug delivery, recycling, and biological material interfaces – to name a few. Currently, he is interested in exploring polymers with complex rheological responses, such as those in non-covalently bound polymeric materials, to investigate structure-property relationships. He hopes to use these relationships to build a design space for creating multifunctional smart materials that adapt to their environment and enable new applications in drug delivery.
EDUCATION
PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - 2017
Thesis: Development and Characterization of Polyphthalaldehyde for Transient Electronics
BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of California Riverside - 2012
HECTOR LOPEZ HERNANDEZ
HONORS, AWARDS, and SCHOLARSHIPS
NSF AGEP Fellowship, 2017-2019
Mavis Future Faculty Fellowship, 2016-2017
Teaching Fellow, Mechanical Science & Engineering, 2016
Beckman Institute Graduate Research Fellowship, 2015-2016
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Oct 2017 – Jan 2021
Research Advisor: Prof. Eric Appel
Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aug 2012 – Oct 2017
Research Advisor: Prof. Scott R. White
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California Riverside, Sept 2011 – June 2012
Research Advisor: Prof. Elaine Haberer
ABOUT
Hector grew up all over southern California but found himself attending high school in the middle of the Mojave Desert in Ridgecrest. He attended UC Riverside to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering and found his love of snowboarding at Mt. High and Big Bear Mountain in the winters. His interest in research led him to Illinois for an awesome research experience in the Autonomous Materials Systems group. He also learned about Midwestern winters, corn (lots of corn), and the amazing city of Chicago. In his free time Hector finds himself traveling, snowboarding (yay tahoe!), playing video games, and volunteering at events to help get underrepresented populations interested in scientific careers.