Julián M. Hernández Torres
Co-Founder/Financial & Business Development Director
Julian M. Hernández Torres is a biostatistician and researcher specializing in psychedelic science, survey methodology, statistics, psychometrics, and machine learning. He holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and an MPH in Biostatistics from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.
His research career includes serving as a research assistant at the Graduate School of Public Health, where he contributed to projects on cancer epidemiology, mortality due to Hurricane Maria, seroprevalence of COVID-19 in Puerto RIco, and statistical analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); and as a research assistant and field coordinator at the Behavioral Sciences Research Institute (BSRI), where he worked on the epidemiology of drug use and mental health disorders in Puerto Rico. As Co-Principal Investigator alongside Dr. Yamil Ortiz at the University of Puerto Rico’s Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, he led a survey study on the mental health of university students in Puerto Rico.
Julian has collaborated with researchers from institutions including Arizona State University, Universidad Ana G. Méndez, and Harvard Medical School, co-authoring multiple publications and a book chapter. As a statistician, he has contributed to the application of advanced methodologies in psychological measurement and experimental design in psychology, presenting at national conferences alongside leading scholars. His work in psychedelics includes presenting findings on LSD consumption patterns among Puerto Rican adults.
Currently working in the financial sector, Julian develops machine learning models for risk assessment and related applications. As Co-Founder, Finance Director, and Researcher at PRISMA, he is dedicated to advancing psychedelic science in Latinx and other underrepresented communities, while leveraging AI and data science to create innovative research tools, knowledge products, and services for academia, industry, and policy stakeholders.