Dr. Renato J. Aguilera earned his BS and MS degrees in Microbiology at the University of Texas at El Paso and obtained a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley (1987). Prior to returning to UTEP, he served as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California at Los Angeles. For his long-standing commitment to student training and mentorship, he received the prestigious American Society for Microbiology William A. Hinton Research Training Award in 2010, the SACNAS Distinguished Research Mentor Award in 2013 and the SACNAS Distinguished Scientist Award in 2019. Most recently, he received the 2022 EE Just Award from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in recognition of his contributions to science and education. He previously served as the chair of the Minority Affairs Committee from 2010 to 2016. In addition, he has served on the Board of Scientific Councilors of the NIEHS, on the Committee of Visitors of NSF, and on several NIH grant review panels. In 2023, he was appointed to the NIH Advisory Committee for the Director’s Working Group on Diversity. Most recently, he was elected Life Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 2024. He has published over 100 research articles, and his research has focused on the discovery of drugs with anticancer activity and holds two patents on such drugs.