Van Hermoso is the occupational therapist for the subjects participating in the Tower's research program. His job is to identify the emerging skills each human hybrid reveals and teach them how to put their newly acquired skills to use. He also works to help them retain the skills they already had. As Van says, it doesn't do to forget what makes us human as we change into something new, different, and hopefully better.

Van has good hair, but he is trying to compensate for his bad skin. His face is rough and pocketed. He keeps fit to, as Van says, help others keep fit. "If they see that I can do it, then they will know that it's possible for them, also."

Van is a man who likes to take risks. In the past, he wrecked a car in a street race and killed a mother and her infant daughter. He has moved on, he thinks, although that night still comes back to haunt him.

Van works out, often to excess, at night. Those are the nights he can‘t sleep without dreaming of the woman who died under the wheels of his car.

Secretly, Van is in love with Leah Fortinier. He thinks that she will notice him if he one day wins the Mr. Universe title.

One mannerism Van is known for is saying, "Shoot, I'm listening," when he wants someone to just say something they are hesitant to say or ask.

We first meet Van in Book 2 of The Human-Hybrid Project, Inside the Darkness.