About Us

Dr. Robert W. Fernandez is the Executive Director of Cientifico Latino, Inc. He was born in Lima, Peru and grew up in NJ where he attended community college at Union County College where he majored in Business Administration. He received his Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Biotechnology at York College, City University of New York. As a former undocumented immigrant for twenty years, mentors played a vital role in navigating his undergraduate and doctoral studies and he believes in pushing it forward. He received his PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale where he mapped neurotransmitter GPCRs in the C. elegans egg-laying circuit. He previously was a Junior Simons Fellow at Columbia University. He is the co-founder of Científico Latino, Inc. a science organization that works to improve the pipeline of minoritized students in higher education in the sciences. Dr. Fernandez received awards for his work such as the PD Soros Fellowship, selected as one of the 100 inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America, and Public Voices Fellow of the Op-Ed Project.

Olivia is a Schmidt Science Postdoctoral Fellow in the SENse Lab at HHMI / University of California, Berkeley. She co-founded Científico Latino in 2016 after realizing how obscure the path to succeeding in STEM graduate school applications is without information and mentorship. She has previous served as a co-founder and co-director of GSMI, and Digital Experience Director. She is passionate about making science accessible to anyone who is curious.

She completed her PhD at The Rockefeller University, advised by Dr. Leslie Vosshall, on chemosensation in mosquitoes, the deadliest animal to humans. Previously, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience & Behavior at Barnard College of Columbia University, and then worked as a research technician in the lab of Nobel prize winner Dr. Eric Kandel. She was a fellow of the Women and Science Initiative in 2017, the recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2019 and was named a Kavli Neural Systems Institute Graduate Fellow in 2021.

Cathy is currently a Patent Agent at Goodwin. She received her PhD from the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department at Yale University in 2021. She received her Bachelor's in Chemistry from Amherst College in 2014, where she discovered her interest in the intersection between chemistry and biology. After college, she worked as a lab technician at MIT for two years before gaining the confidence to apply to Ph.D. programs. Being a first-generation student who grew up in a Salvadoran family in Miami, FL, Cathy is passionate about mentoring future generations of underrepresented scientists and hopeful that we can work together to address the problem of lack of representation of underrepresented minority scholars in higher education.

Melissa is currently a PhD student in the joint Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology Biomedical Engineering program. She is Colombian-American, born and raised in Queens, NY. Melissa completed her B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). Melissa's research focuses on creating a more sophisticated model of neurodevelopment by integrating cortical brain organoids and 3D bioprinting. She is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Melissa is very involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, educational outreach, and mentorship for underrepresented and marginalized students. With CL, she hopes to continue being involved in these efforts and making STEM inclusive and accessible to all.

Daisy was born and raised in Brooklyn, NYC. She recently graduated with her PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. Daisy is excited to be continuing her 5th year working for Científico Latino. She started off as a Webinar Director, and is now serving her first year as Digital Education Director for GSMI. She is excited to continue working for and working with students from all backgrounds.

Dr. Nandan G. Pandit is a Junior Board member of Cientifico Latino and runs the Consulting Preparation Program. Dr. Pandit graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2014 with B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology with Honors. There he won the Life Science thesis award for his undergraduate research thesis in the Birge Lab focused on designing a protein based retinal implant to treat age related macular degeneration. Afterwards, Dr. Pandit joined Yale University where he joined the De La Cruz Laboratory. Dr. Pandit proposed and initiated a new branch of research in the De La Cruz Laboratory where he discovered that mechanical forces can accelerate biochemical reactions associated with the actin cytoskeleton. His graduate work was published in top tier journals and he was invited to speak at the top conference in his field. Upon graduation, he joined LEK a global management consulting firm known for Life Sciences. Dr. Pandit was quickly promoted to project leader where he specialized in Life Science tools, diagnostics, and bioprocessing where he led projects generating >$3M in revenue. Aiming to further specialize and drive impact in the industry, Dr. Pandit joined the Strategy team at Thermo Fisher Scientific where he supports strategic decisions made at the C-suite level. Dr. Pandit plans to continue leveraging his technical insights in Life Science tools and business experience to enable innovation through his career in the precision medicine industry.

Heber is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington in the department of Immunology. His thesis explores how the small intestine responds to a parasitic helminth infection with a focus on cell differentiation and effector functions. He was born in northern Mexico, but raised in Arizona where he earned his B.S. in Biochemistry.

In his time with CL, he has acted as a mentor through the GSMI program and more recently as a part of the graphic design team. There he has designed newsletter graphics, social media posts and T shirts. Heber is committed to making science- its reasoning, learnings and tools- more accessible and creating a training environment that sustains and supports trainees from under represented backgrounds.

Carlos graduated from Hamilton College in 2010 where he majored in chemical physics. For graduate studies, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Sakmar at the Rockefeller University as part of the tri-institutional training program in chemical biology. Carlos was awarded the NSF graduate research fellowship in 2012 to support his research efforts. He received his Ph.D. in 2017 where he employed single-molecule methods to interrogate receptor-ligand binding interactions. He then joined the bio-imaging resource center at the Rockefeller University where he taught other scientists how to operate various light microscopes. He obtained his M.D. degree from Weill Cornell Medicine in 2024 and is currently a resident in psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Sergio is a neuroscience and chemical biology PhD candidate at the Scripps Research Institute working on Alzheimer's disease cerebral organoid models and treatments. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies in 2018, he earned a B.S.E. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and a Master of Biotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania. As a naturalized immigrant, born and raised in Mexico, Sergio is committed to his community support efforts; leading numerous Latinx pre-professional organizations and mentorship programs at Penn, co-founding his current institution's Scientific Diversity Association, and co-developing the GSEC program at Científico Latino. Sergio strives to continue these, and future efforts synergizing mentorship, community outreach, and advocacy to assist and empower present and future generations of underrepresented minorities in STEM.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Yale School of Medicine. I am a developmental biologist who investigates how chromatin modifiers and another category of underexplored proteins, called micropeptides, shape the gene networks that specify and specialize vertebrate cells, with implications for the evolution of cell states and developmental disorders. I look forward to establishing my independent research lab as a tenure-track faculty member within the next year. Please visit valerietornini.com for more information!

Aníbal is a 5th year PhD candidate in the biological chemistry program at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. His multiple and diverse research experiences led him into the versatile community that uses fruit flies as a model organism, in his case, to identify the modulatory effects of social experiences. He was born in La Habana, Cuba, and then migrated to Puerto Rico. While pursuing his bachelor's at the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras, he volunteered for a science museum. He enjoyed answering questions from students and elders in his community, but he often found himself at the limits of his knowledge. This led him to look for answers alongside the scientists who generated them while doing research. His passion for making science for all is aligned with the Científico Latino mission, as we are driven to streamline the PhD pathway for diverse future generations of scientists.

Daniel is a native Pacific Islander of Guam and a Cancer Biology PhD graduate from UMich. They studied the role of specialized cells in the progression of Pancreatic Cancer, soon to be the second most deadly cancer as of 2025. Daniel is a PREP Alum and 1st generation College/PhD Student. Overall, they are interested in becoming a PI and having a lab where students from Guam can come and work during the summer for experience. To acheive this Daniel will be doing a postdoc in Pancreatic Cancer. Daniel works to improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through a number of initiatives at UMich, their undergrad alma mater as well as national programs. With CL, they hope to provide underrepresented minorities the resources and opportunities needed to succeed in their chosen fields.

Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina is Director of the Yale Ciencia Initiative in Yale School of Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Director for DEI of Yale’s Wu Tsai Institute. She leads programs that broaden participation and increase inclusion and retention in STEM training and careers. She is PI of the Yale Ciencia Academy, an NIH-funded professional development program that has provided >260 biomedical and health science PhD students across the U.S. with training, mentoring, and peer support. Until recently, Dr. Guerrero-Medina was Executive Director of Ciencia Puerto Rico. Under her leadership, CienciaPR grew to a network of >17,000, a staff of 18, and the organization was recognized for their work promoting justice, equity, and inclusion in by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the AAAS-Caribbean Division, and the White House. Originally from Puerto Rico, with heritage from Ecuador and Argentina, she has a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by science policy work with the National Academies and the NIH.