Officers and scientists
Science and service: Twins earn biology degrees and commission as Navy ensigns
Emily Hernandez likes birdwatching. Her twin sister, Amy, enjoys making coffee as part of her calming morning routine.
Though these are small differences, the Hernandez twins, both University of Idaho midshipmen, graduating with biology degrees from the College of Science, and earning commissions as Navy officers this semester, share much in common.
U of I gave me everything I didn’t know I was looking for, and I’m grateful to have found it.Amy Hernandez. Midshipman. Biology major
Their combined path will lead them to Japan, where both will serve as Surface Warfare Officers onboard U.S. destroyers of the Seventh Fleet of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans. Emily will report to her first ship the USS Higgins out of Yokosuka, Japan, while Amy will be assigned to the USS Howard, also based out of Yokosuka.
The sisters have more commonalities: they both plan to pursue careers as science researchers in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps after completing their initial 5-year stint.
Their University of Idaho education set them up for success, empowering them to reach new heights, they said.
Their desire to pursue medical research was solidified when Professor Shirley Luckhart gave them the chance to work in her malaria research lab to assist in the study of malaria interventions and transmission. It was in her lab that the twins were awarded a $7,000 IHHE-USDA Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates traineeship award to help support her work.
Emily’s research focused on the effects of biogenic amines — compounds in animal cells that help with proper body functions — on how well Anopheles stephensi, a mosquito major vector for malaria in India, handles high temperatures.
Amy helped researchers explore how histamine and serotonin — which are chemicals associated with allergic reactions and sleep, respectively — can influence the circadian activity patterns of female A. stephensi mosquitoes throughout their lifespan.
“We help each other study,” Emily said. “We push each other to try to be the best version of ourselves, having the same major makes going to class fun.”
Going at it together has been an effective strategy for the sisters who split their childhood between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico where they attended middle school before returning to Las Vegas to graduate from high school.
The duo, who were in junior ROTC in high school didn’t consider attending college but thought about enlisting in the Navy. Their senior naval science instructor encouraged them to find at least one university with a program that allowed them to earn a commission while also pursuing a college degree.
“Choosing the University of Idaho wasn’t on my radar, because I thought I was for sure enlisting in the U.S. Navy, but as soon as I discovered its strong College of Science and the opportunities through NROTC, it felt like the perfect fit,” Amy said. “U of I gave me everything I didn’t know I was looking for, and I’m grateful to have found it.”
At the Moscow campus, they were accepted as part of a NROTC preparatory program. The twins dove into their degree plans, became student ambassadors for the College of Science and earned summer slots as interns at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. In addition, they were awarded an internship with the Navy Medical Research Center’s Office of Naval Research.
At Lawrence Livermore, Emily assisted with a public chemical data repository, which is a data bank of chemical substances, their structures properties and biological activities, with an emphasis on looking for chemical warfare countermeasures.
Amy’s work included creating chemical structure activity relationship repositories — a database of chemicals, their structures and biological functions — from patents and performing molecular simulations on potential anti-cancer drug compounds associated with one common cancer-causing gene, the KRAS gene.
“It was a lot of computational chemistry where we used certain software and databases,” Amy said. “We were building a collection of information about how different chemical structures relate to their biological activity and then using that information to study how potential anti-cancer drugs could work.”
As part of the NROTC program the sisters also spent several weeks in the summer on “cruises,” including a tour onboard a guided missile destroyer out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and a foreign exchange cruise with Republic of Korea Naval Academy onboard a landing ship tank.
Aside from learning naval warfare, medicine and being submerged in deep science, the twins also took time to enjoy lighter fare.
As a Vandal, Emily found a fondness for birds after taking a course from Professor Kerri Vierling:
“The labs were hands-on, and we actually went birdwatching, which was a blast! And Amy developed a penchant for coffee making;
“It’s a simple, rewarding process that combines precision and creativity and exploring coffee from different regions keeps it interesting.”
The twins are looking forward to their next adventure.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Emily said. “We’ve gotten so much support here at the U of I from the College of Science, the NROTC program, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and we are extremely grateful that we were given the chance to be a part of it. Having the opportunity to meet professors that later became our mentors like Dr. Shirley Luckhart and Dr. Brenda Schroeder made us realize that we made the right choice by coming to this institution.”
Article by Ralph Bartholdt
Photos by Ralph Bartholdt, Emily and Amy Hernandez
Published in November 2024