Dr. Raúl R. Rodríguez-Berríos, a native of Orocovis, Puerto Rico, earned his Ph.D. in Organic Synthesis in 2010 from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. In 2011, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in organic synthesis by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to conduct research at the University of Texas at Austin. That same year, he was recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as one of the 15 most outstanding young Puerto Rican scientists within and outside Puerto Rico.

Dr. Rodríguez began his academic career in 2012 as a faculty member and researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus. During his eight years there, he was a pioneer in advancing teaching and scientific research, establishing the institution’s first research laboratory and developing innovative courses such as Analytical Chemistry and Biochemistry. In 2014, he received the Ibero-American Fellowship for Young Faculty and Researchers from Santander Universities, which enabled him to establish a scientific collaboration as an adjunct researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In 2019, the Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP) program awarded him a fellowship to complete a summer research internship and establish a scientific collaboration at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus.

In August 2021, Dr. Rodríguez joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus—his alma mater—where he currently serves as a faculty member and researcher in organic chemistry and biochemistry education, as well as in projects with biomedical applications. As an educator, he has contributed to the creation of two new courses within the department: Medicinal Natural Products Chemistry and Fundamentals of Food Chemistry.

For approximately the past five years, Dr. Rodríguez has directed the CEROC Lab (Chemistry Education Research in Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry), where he serves as principal investigator and mentor to graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. His research focuses on the development and implementation of new laboratory experiences—activities and experiments—for courses in organic chemistry, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and food chemistry. To date, he has developed nine original laboratory experiments, four of which have been published in the Journal of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Dr. Rodríguez is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, IUPAC and the American Chemical Society. In 2022, he was awarded a grant from the Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network (SSMN), supported by the Social Science Research Council and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in recognition of his outstanding mentorship and academic leadership.