Chemist and educator Geraldine L. Richmond, Ph.D., of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore., will be will be honored June 20 by the world’s largest scientific society for encouraging women and minorities to study and pursue careers in chemistry. She will be presented with the Women Chemists Committee Regional Award for Contributions to Diversity at the American Chemical Society’s Northwest regional meeting in Spokane, Wash.
For more than 20 years, Richmond has mentored women and minorities studying chemistry and recruited them for science careers. To that end, she recently founded the Committee on the Advancement of Women in Chemistry (COACh) to address the slow progress women have made reaching gender equality in chemistry professions. The organization — established in 1997 with seed funding from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation — provides women chemists with services and support that help them achieve their full career potential. COACh also receives support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and Union Carbide.
Richmond won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Engineering Mentoring in 1997 and the Francis P. Garvan Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1996, among her many honors.
Richmond received her B.S. in chemistry from Kansas State University in 1975 and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980.
The Regional Award for Contributions to Diversity, given to commemorate the ACS Women Chemists Committee’s 75th anniversary celebration, recognizes individuals who have stimulated or fostered diversity in the chemical workplace.