2021 Hall of Fame Inductees

Hernandez, head teacher and director of the T-Tech Academy of Technology & Engineering at Tustin High School, began his career in the semiconductor industry working in applications and technical support and later as a sales representative for companies like Intel and AMD. Despite finding success in a highly completive environment, he decided to make a career change and become a teacher. He earned a master’s degree in education and teaching credentials in mathematics and engineering technologies. After 13 years, he left the electronics industry and began his new career in education where his start as a teacher would coincide with a rising national emphasis in STEM education.

Soon after being hired by Tustin High School, he was asked to lead the development of a new engineering academy model, meant to introduce students to multiple engineering and computer science disciplines. Four years later, he was no longer teaching math, having switched completely to engineering and becoming the academy's lead instructor.  Over the subsequent 12 years, hundreds of his students have benefited from a hands-on, immersive technology education previously unavailable at most public schools. His methods are a break from the traditional academic models and include relevant technology skills like 3D modeling, material science, electronics, fabrication methods, coding and more. Many of his students also take part in engineering summer internships, giving them an authentic tech industry experience, at places like Boeing, UPS, EON Reality, Edwards Life Sciences, Medtronic and others. Hernandez has also been instrumental in the development and implementation of interscholastic engineering competitions throughout Orange County like the OC Maker Challenge, UCI's Energy Invitational vehicle competition, and STEM on the Sidelines in cooperation with UCI and the LA Chargers football team.

In the 16 years since becoming a teacher, Hernandez has been recognized with numerous awards, including Tustin High School's Teacher of the Year, Orange County's Engineering Teacher of the Year, OC Parenting Magazine's High School Teacher of the Year and California's Career Technical Education Teacher of the Year. Under his direction, Tustin High School's engineering program has become a model for STEM and CTE education. The T-Tech Academy has been named Orange County's Best High School Engineering Program by the Orange County Engineering Council and was also selected as a winner of the Golden Bell Award by the California School Board Association. His students have gone on to study engineering at all UC and Cal State campuses, and many of the country's top private universities. Today, you'll find graduates from his program working for companies like Boeing, NASA, Google, UPS, JPL, SpaceX and many more.

Hernandez is also a winner of the Lemelson-MIT Excite Award and was an InvenTeams grant recipient, a partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Lemelson Foundation. He has since become one of LMIT's Master Teachers, and visits the MIT campus on a regular basis guiding teachers and students alike in the process of Invention Education. As a nod to his alma mater, you can email him by simply using the word "Anteater" with the traditional MIT email domain.

Hernandez arrived in the United States at the age of 12 and was the first in his family to graduate from high school and college. He credits his time at UCI as the most formative experience of his life and constantly shares advice and stories from his time in college with his students. Today, his immigrant success story, industry experience and passion for learning make him uniquely qualified as a teacher and role model for the next generation of engineers and scientists.

In his spare time, Hernandez plays golf, builds electronic gadgets and fixes things that don't need fixing. He also builds and refurbishes electric guitars, unfortunately leaving little time for actual practice.

John D. Lincoln (Johnny) is founder, president and CEO of Axiom Materials, Inc., an aerospace materials business known for its specialization in advanced composites, including thermally resistant carbon composites and oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composites. Lincoln is a hands-on leader who specializes in building and developing organizations and engineering processes. He has managed the development, data analysis and approval processes of hundreds of aerospace and industrial material qualification programs, including materials used for aircraft engines and interiors, rocket nozzles, advanced energy, national defense, auto racing and electric vehicles. Lincoln values a strong work ethic, regenerative leadership principles, integrity and authenticity. He is a contributor and mentor to both business and scientific communities, holding board adviser and director positions for companies, nonprofits and institutes. Lincoln is an active researcher and publisher with interests that span the fields of advanced composite materials, industrial ecology and sustainability.

Born in Las Vegas and raised in Southern California, Lincoln completed his undergraduate work in chemistry at UC Berkeley in 2000. After graduation, he started his career as a researcher at Umeco Advanced Materials. Lincoln completed graduate programs at UCI while concurrently acting, in promoted succession, as technical vice president of Umeco. Lincoln’s graduate research focused on strategies for identifying and mitigating electronic waste; his collaborators were public health professor Dele Ogunseitan, former UCI adjunct professor Andrew Shapiro and materials science professor James Earthman, Lincoln’s adviser.

During graduate school, Lincoln also earned his pilot’s license and interned at NASA JPL in Pasadena. After earning his doctorate, Lincoln spent a year travelling abroad. Shortly thereafter he founded Axiom Materials, Inc. in 2009. Axiom Materials grew quickly under Lincoln’s leadership, and in 2019 he sold the company to Kordsa, Inc for $181 million, merging leading international businesses in advanced materials.

In 2017, Lincoln founded the Lincoln Dynamic Foundation, located in Henderson, Nevada, which seeks to address problems affecting community, youth and the environment. In 2020, Lincoln founded the WISDOM Institute at UCI. Its mission is to guide development and adoption of sustainable materials through interdisciplinary collaboration with professionals in the fields of business, chemistry, materials engineering and public health.

Lincoln and his wife, Bethany, enjoy raising their two young boys in Henderson.

Massoumi serves as senior vice president and general manager at Iteris, where he oversees consulting and software practices for the smart mobility infrastructure management company. He began his career as a transportation engineer and has advised local, regional and state governments across the country about ways to improve mobility across all modes of transportation.

Massoumi has served on the board of directors of the Intelligent Transportation Society of California and is chairman of the board of its national counterpart, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. With over 20 years of leadership experience, Massoumi is a key proponent of using a platform-based approach to solve mobility challenges, with a particular passion for driving data-focused solutions.

After earning his bachelor’s degree at UCI, Massoumi completed a master’s degree in engineering from UC Berkeley in 1996 and an MBA from the University of Southern California in 2003. He has published over 100 papers in national and international conferences and holds a patent in transportation analytics visualization.

He had early involvement in UCI’s Institute of Transportation Studies and is a member of the UC-wide Institute of Transportation Studies Board of Advisors. For many years, he has been an industry lecturer and mentor at UCI, teaching engineering students through real-world projects that offer hands-on experience. Realizing the effectiveness of this approach, he converted the course into a teaching program at his company. Internships for UCI students at Iteris have many times translated into full time jobs for Anteaters upon their graduation.

A debt of gratitude to UCI has driven Massoumi toward continual service at the university. He sits on the Engineering Leadership Council, and is steadfast in his advocacy to the university’s elected state and federal legislative leaders. He has taken time to travel to Washington, D.C. and Sacramento to promote policy positions and gain support of resources beneficial to the campus community. His letters to legislators remind them of UCI’s economic and pubic impact in Orange County.

Massoumi is married to a fellow Anteater and lives in Orange County with his three kids.