Resumé

Experience

Data Science for All | Honors Empowerment Fellow • October 2022 - February 2023
Correlation One

• Accepted into a competitive (<3% acceptance rate), 17-week data science fellowship with learning facilitated through real-world data science business cases using Python, SQL, and Tableau.

• Led a small group of fellows in designing, analyzing, and visualizing a plastic waste data set on the Great Lakes with Python. Our results suggest plastic type encountered vary by beach but content is consistent throughout each of the lakes.

• Created a detailed project plan with weekly meetings to assign deliverables and ensure timeline remained on track.

• Received mentorship from an industry data scientist.

• Achieved Honors designation for high performance in extended cases and review modules testing skills in exploratory data analysis, data wrangling, and SQL.

Postdoctoral Scholar • September 2021 - February 2023
University of California, Merced • Merced, CA

• Directed 2 projects focused on the dietary ecology of modern sharks. Duties included validation, exploratory analyses, statistical model-building, and visualization for dietary data from a variety of shark species in the Atlantic and the coast of California using R and Excel. 

• Mentored 4 students on various parts of the analytical pipeline including data exploration, visualization, validation of statistical assumptions, and use of appropriate statistical models.

• Designed experiments with a particular emphasis on defining research questions, relevant hypotheses, and testing hypotheses using appropriate methods.

• Trained and certified in backwards-design and active learning techniques for a variety of audiences.

PhD Candidate • June 2016 - August 2021
Louisiana State University • Baton Rouge, LA

• Led research projects quantifying the energetic pathways present within fish and invertebrate communities along the coast of Tanzania. Duties included validating stable isotope data, QA/QC, exploratory analyses, fitting of linear and mixing models, and data visualization using R as well as presentation of results in the form of guest and invited lectures.

• Presented research findings to technical and general audiences in the form of poster presentations (~10 rotating groups of 5 audience members), oral presentations (~60 audience members) and presented 1-hour guest lectures to a class of 15+ students.

• Used stable isotope analyses in combination with statistical methods to gain insights into how fisheries species utilize adjacent marine habitats with results disseminated to fisheries stakeholders and managers.

Education

Louisiana State University • Baton Rouge, LA • June 2016 – June 2021
PhD, Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Minor: Applied Statistics
Dissertation: “Fisheries Food Webs: Quantifying Habitat-use, Trophic Structure, and Energetic Pathways in Coastal Tanzania”

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey • New Brunswick, NJ • September 2010 - May 2014
Bachelor of Arts, Biological Sciences                                                                     

Scholarships and Awards

William H. Patrick Jr. PhD Scholarship for Wetland Expertise • 2020 • $3,000

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship • 2020 • Honorable Mention

Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation-2nd Best Poster Presentation • 2017 • $200 

Richard A. Lipsey and Joseph Lipsey Jr. Graduate Student Scholarship Incentive Award • 2016 • $4,000

Louisiana Board of Regents Fellowship • 2016 - 2020 • $28,000/year

Publications

Hernandez, M.F., Midway, S.R., West, L., Tillya, H., Polito, M.J. (2021). Stable isotopes track the ontogenetic movement of three commercially important fishes along a coastal Tanzanian seascape. Marine Ecology Progress Series, In Press
 
Uchida, E., Rivera-Monroy, V. H., Ates, S. A., Castañeda-Moya, E., Gold, A. J., Guilfoos, T., ..., Hernandez, M.F.,…, & McNally, C. (2019). Collaborative Research Across Boundaries: Mangrove Ecosystem Services and Poverty Traps as a Coupled Natural-Human System. In Collaboration Across Boundaries for Social-Ecological Systems Science (pp. 115-152). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.  

Robertson, M. D., Hernandez, M. F., Midway, S. R., Hasler, C. T., & Suski, C. D. (2018). Shelter-seeking behavior of crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, in elevated carbon dioxide. Aquatic Ecology, 52(2-3), 225-233.  

Midway, S. R., Ostrowski, A., West, L., Hernandez, M., & Robertson, M. D. (2018). Improved Growth Estimates for Lethrinus harak: Measuring Increments, Adjusting Ages, and Fitting Flexible Growth Models. Fishes, 3(3), 31.  

Cambridge, J., Hernandez, M., Jensen, O., Buckley, B., McCandlish, E., & Robson, M. (2016). Concentrations of heavy metals in fish species targeted by anglers in central New Jersey: A pilot study. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 22(8), 1593-1601.

Presentations

Hernandez, M. F., Brasso, R., Midway, S. R., & Polito, M. J. (2019, November). Trophic structure and mercury biomagnification in a coastal Tanzanian seagrass fish community. In 2019 CERF Biennial Conference. CERF. (Oral)

Hernandez, M., Midway, S., & Polito, M. (2018, August). Stable Isotopes Track the Ontogenetic Movement of Three Commercially Important Tanzanian Fish. In 148th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society. AFS. (Oral)

Hernandez, M., Robertson, M., Midway, S., & Polito, M. (2018, August). Take a Look, It’s in a Book: What an FAO Field Guide Tells Us about Habitat-Use By Fishes in Coastal Tanzania. In 148th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society. AFS. (Poster)

Hernandez, M. F., West, L., ... & Polito, M. J. (2017, December). Do Mangroves Subsidize Carbon to Adjacent Mudflat Fish Communities?. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. (Poster)

Hernandez, M. F., Midway, S. R., Polito, M. J. (2017, November). Stable isotopes track the ontogenetic movement of a commercially important fish in coastal Tanzania. In 2017 CERF Biennial Conference. CERF. (Poster)