Robert W. Fernandez, PhD

Rob is a post-doc at Columbia University working in the Oliver Hobert lab studying C. elegans neuroscience. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry at Yale University in March 2020, and is a 2014 PD Soros Fellow. He was born in Lima, Peru and grew up in New Jersey where he went to community college to received his Associates of Arts Degree in Business Administration at Union County College. He went on to receive his Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology from York College, City University of New York.

Growing up, he was undocumented for 20 years which made pursuing higher education difficult; however, he was able to overcome this due to the support of his family and STEM mentors. He aims to change the STEM narrative by making STEM accessible to everyone and help underrepresented students succeed in STEM.