Javier Hernández Borges is Associate Professor (Profesor Contratado Doctor), with a permanent contract, in the Department of Chemistry at the University of La Laguna (ULL) since October 2014.
He completed a Degree in Chemistry (specialization in Fundamental Chemistry) in 2001, obtaining the best academic record of his class. He also received a Special Mention at the Extraordinary Thesis Awards (Premio Extraordinario Fin de Carrera) 2000/2001 of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.
After completing his undergraduate studies, he joined the research group “Chemical Analysis Applied to Industry, Environment and Food Products” (AQAIMPA) of the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science at the ULL for the completion of his PhD thesis. During this period (2002-2005), he was awarded with a FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and conducted three predoctoral stays at various research centers (Department of Analytical Chemistry, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and Department of Food Characterization of the Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales of the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, in Madrid). His PhD thesis (December 2005) obtained the European Mention. In fact, in 2006, he was awarded with the second prize for the Best Research on Experimentation on Agrarian Issues, Fisheries and Food of the Canary Islands (XX Agrarian, Fisheries and Food Awards of the Local Government of the Canary Islands) and the Best PhD Thesis Award of the ULL (Premio Extraordinario) in the area of Experimental Sciences.
He completed his predoctoral stage with a stay at the Institute of Chemical Methodologies of the CNR in Rome, under the direction of Dr. Salvatore Fanali. His research activity was focused on the analysis of biogenic amines in foods by uni- and multidimensional capillary electrophoretic techniques and nanoliquid chromatography (the postdoctoral contract was granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science). He was also granted with the Juan de la Cierva contract in the Canarian Institute of Agrarian Research (ICIA) in Tenerife, where he developed his research focused primarily on the analysis of pesticides in banana cultivars. From January 2009 to December 2013, he worked as Ramón y Cajal contract in the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science of the ULL.
Dr. Hernandez Borges has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, 15 book chapters, over 80 congress communications and a great teaching experience. Two of his latest conference contributions received the José Antonio García Domínguez Award of the Spanish Society of Chromatography and Related Techniques (SECyTA); in particular, for the application of ionic liquids as mobile phase additives in liquid chromatography and also as new extraction solvents in dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. In 2011 he also received one of the best posters awards of Euroanalysis 2011 held in Belgrade, as well as the Young Scientist Award for the best oral communication of young scientists of the 18th International Symposium on Electro- and Liquid Phase-Separation Techniques (ITP 2011) held in Tbilisi, Georgia. Furthermore, in 2012 he received the Wiley Prize for best poster of the ISSC 2012 congress held in Riva del Garda, Italy.
He has directed several Diplomas of Advanced Studies (DEAs), Master Thesis and Final Degree Projects as well as four PhD Thesis, three of them awarded the Best PhD Thesis Award of the ULL (Premio Extraordinario). Dr. Hernández Borges is also currently co-directing three PhD Thesis more related with the application of new nanomaterials as well as microextraction techniques for the analysis of estrogenic compounds in water and food. More information about the activities of his group is available at: http://webpages.ull.es/users/aqaimpa/
Personal experience as Ramón y Cajal Researcher regarding the stabilization as Associate Professor:
“The ULL has maintained at all times committed to stabilize all RYC as Associate Professors (Profesores Contratados Doctores) with permanent contracts, provided they obtained the I3 accreditation. This has been done since the beginning of the RyC program. Despite this commitment and my constant dedication to research and teaching, I have lived the recent years with some uncertainty about whether or not such contract will finally materialize. In fact, before I finally got my present position I was unemployed for nearly 9 months. During that time, I even considered leaving the country due to the impossibility of continuing research in Spain. Finally, it was not necessary and I now feel extremely lucky to have gotten this position, especially considering that the current situation of our country is not the best one to stabilize researchers”.