Natural from Requena (Valencia), Prof. Dr. Enrique Hernández was born on December 19, 1933 in a family formed by Ms. Lucia Gimenez and Mr. Aurelio Hernández, entrepreneurs dedicated to wine agriculture and the operation of the family winery.

From a young age he decided to direct his life towards the academic world. He studied pharmacy, graduating from the University of Granada in 1957, with an extraordinary award, and received his doctorate from the same university three years later, in 1960, with an outstanding cum laude.

Upon his return to Valencia, Dr. Enrique Hernández had the opportunity to acquire a pharmacy run by his wife, Dra. Delia Perez, whom he married in December 1960.

He became very actively involved in university teaching, occupying teaching responsibilities such as professor of microbiology at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University and later at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, as well as managerial responsibilities at the university, in a period of growth of the teaching offers. He held the responsibilities of dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy (1974-1978), deputy director of the School of Agricultural Engineers of Valencia (1984-1986) and director of the Department of Biotechnology of the Polytechnic University of Valencia from 1986 until his retirement.

Simultaneously with his teaching and university organizational activity, Dr. Enrique Hernández, developed a fruitful research work, his true passion and vocation.

In 1960 he joined the School of Agronomy and Food Technology and, in 1962, he held the position of researcher, being distinguished with the national prize for team research.

Within the research work we want to highlight especially its collaboration with industries from various sectors. Although different, all the companies that collaborated with Dr. Enrique Hernández were interested in the application of microbiology and biotechnology to industrial processes: study of the microbiology of soils and the elaboration of organic fertilizers by microorganisms, establishment of good practices of microbiological manufacturing in the elaboration of nougat and cocoa derivatives, establishment of good microbiological manufacturing practices in the elaboration of Valencian tiger nut horchata, evaluation techniques of mycotoxin binders, antifungal evaluation techniques for the manufacture of compound feed, technical for the detection of antibiotic residues in animal tissues and updating of the taxonomy of microorganisms intended for the constitution of a strain for the manufacture of veterinary vaccines.

Likewise, Dr. Enrique Hernández participated in a wide activity of scientific associations as founder of the food microbiology group of the Spanish Society of Microbiology, in 1978, association of food technologists of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón where he served as president in 1985, Foundation for Advanced Studies of Valencia, since 1992, and Fellow member of the Interamerican Medical and Health Association, since 1993.

All these teaching, research and associative activities earned him to be named Academic of the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Valencian Community, Academic of honor of the Academy of Pharmacy of the Valencian Community, Academic of the Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Catalonia in 1987 and Academician of the Royal Academy of France in 1992.

After a long illness, on April 29, 2021, he passed away in Valencia, ending a long professional career and an exemplary personal life.

With this we have all lost a friend, dear, restless and extraordinarily hard-working man.