Oregon chemistry professor, mentor to women in science to lecture at Cornell

MOUNT VERNON — Geraldine Richmond, professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, will lecture at
Cornell College on “Quilting Together a Professional Career in Science” on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 11 a.m. in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons. Admission is free.

Her lecture is for Cornell’s Donna Russell Fox Women in Science Lecture series. Fox attended Cornell in the 1940s and is a retired speech pathologist at the University of Houston.

Richmond also will give a talk on “Going Nonlinear in Probing Structure and Bonding at Aqueous Surfaces” on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 11 a.m. in Room 100 of West Science Center.

Richmond holds the Richard M. and Patricia H. Noyes Professorship in Chemistry at Oregon. She is known for her fundamental studies of molecular processes at semiconductor, metal and liquid surfaces using state-of-the-art laser techniques. She has received numerous national and international awards for these studies and has over 130 publications to her credit.

Her extensive international efforts in recruiting and mentoring women in the sciences at all levels have been recognized with many awards including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Engineering Mentoring from the White House. In 1998 she founded the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists, known as COACh. This organization has assisted more than 10,000 women academic scientists from around the country. In her Cornell talk Richmond will discuss the scientists – particularly women scientists – she has known as friends, colleagues and students.

The Donna Russell Fox Women in Science Lecture series brings to campus high-achieving women in the science or social science communities to lecture and serve as role models for students intending careers in these fields. Fox holds a doctorate in speech pathology and psychology from the University of Missouri. She taught for 30 years at the University of Houston, where her primary research focused on cleft palate toddlers, along with other communication disorders.

The lecture series, begun in 2004, honors Fox’s parents, Raymond and Cecillia Russell. The first lecture was presented by White House science policy adviser Kathie Olsen.