Geraldine L. Richmond, who holds the Presidential Chair in Science and is a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, has been elected to lead Sigma Xi, the world’s largest multidisciplinary honor society for scientists and engineers.
Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a group of engineering students and a junior faculty member. The first five women were appointed to full membership in 1888. Today, Sigma Xi has nearly 60,000 members in more than 500 chapters around the world.
Professor Richmond will assume the title of president-elect on July 1, 2018. She will become president of the society a year later.
Dr. Richmond is co-founder and chair of the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists. She is the former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2016, Dr. Richmond was awarded the National Medal of Science.
Before joining the faculty at the University of Oregon in 1985, Professor Richmond taught at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She states that her research focuses on “understanding the molecular structure and dynamics of interfacial processes that have relevance to environmental remediation, biomolecular assembly, atmospheric chemistry and alternative energy sources.”
Professor Richmond is a graduate of Kansas State University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.