Details

The 2025 Nelson Series explores innovation at the intersection of STEM, space and human possibility. Astronaut José Hernández, the subject of the Amazon Prime movie A Million Miles Away, will share his journey: from being the son of migrant farmworkers to serving as space shuttle mission specialist.

José Hernández, former NASA Astronaut and Founder, Tierra Luna Engineering

5:15 p.m. Community Reception - Galileo Foyer
6:15 p.m. Lecture, "Reaching for Your Own Stars: A Recipe to Succeed in Life," Galileo Hall

Hernandez's impactful, motivational talk will leave audiences so inspired that they re-evaluate and upgrade their personal and professional goals in life. He empowers attendees through his anecdotal stories of hard work and perseverance. He shares a simple yet effective recipe that serves as an effective tool in the empowerment process. Audiences will learn:

• How to reach your full potential
• How to dream big when you are willing to work hard for it
• The six-ingredient recipe to success that led him to his goal of becoming an astronaut

Biography

Migrant farmworker turned NASA astronaut and inspiration for the Amazon Prime film, A Million Miles Away, Jose Hernandez is a barrier-breaking engineer and entrepreneur. Hernandez wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space. He was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.

One of four children in a migrant farming family, Hernandez—who didn't learn English until he was 12 years old—spent much of his childhood traveling between Mexico and southern California depending on the season, picking strawberries and cucumbers at farms along the route. After graduating high school in Stockton, Hernandez enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering and was awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he continued his engineering studies. In 1987, he accepted a full-time job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he had worked as a co-op in college. While at Lawrence Livermore, Hernandez worked on signal and image processing applications in radar imaging, computed tomography, and acoustic imaging.

Later in his career, Hernandez worked on developing quantitative x-ray film imaging analysis techniques for the x-ray laser program. Hernandez applied these techniques in the medical physics arena and co-developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system. This system has proven useful for detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage than present film/screen mammography techniques. Hernandez has won recognition awards for his work on this project. He has also worked in the international arena where he represented Lawrence Livermore and the U.S. Department of Energy on Russian nuclear non-proliferation issues.

Hernández was selected as part of the 19th class of astronauts in 2004. In 2006, José completed Astronaut Candidate Training and in 2009, he was a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission on board the Space Shuttle, Discovery. Since leaving NASA, he served as the Executive Director of Strategic Operations at MEI Technologies in Texas. In 2012, he ran for the US House of Representatives in the 10th California Congressional District. Hernández received the 2016 National Hispanic Hero Award presented by the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute. CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, LLC, José Hernández continues his long history in the field of engineering and space.

The Bruce J. Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series is made possible through the generosity of the family of Bruce J. Nelson ’74. Nelson was a brilliant technologist and leader, who developed the remote procedure call protocol and who, at the time of his death, was the chief science officer at Cisco Systems. The speaker series addresses global technical issues and their social, economic and political challenges—a reflection of Harvey Mudd College’s vision of STEM for a Better World.