December 08, 2017

For Immediate Release

Media Contact
Jamie L. Vernon
Executive Director and CEO
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
jvernon@sigmaxi.org or (800) 243-6534

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.— Members of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society have voted to make Geraldine L. Richmond the Society's future president. She is the presidential chair of science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon. 

Based on the results of an election that ended December 7, Richmond is now Sigma Xi's president-elect designee, a title that kicks off a three-year commitment to the Society. She will join Sigma Xi's Board of Directors as president-elect from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019; serve as Sigma Xi president and chair of the Executive Committee from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020; and remain on the Board as past president from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. 

"I’d like to thank the three candidates who ran for president-elect designee," said Sigma Xi President Stuart L. Cooper. "It was great to have a diverse slate of distinguished members running for the position. Congratulations to Dr. Richmond. I look forward to working with her to advance the Society and further our mission."

During the election, Richmond said that one of her primary goals as Sigma Xi president will be to "raise the visibility of Sigma Xi and its amazing programs both nationally and globally to both increase revenue and membership."

Her research interests include understanding the molecular structure and dynamics of interfacial processes that have relevance to environmental remediation, biomolecular asssembly, atmospheric chemistry, and alternative energy sources. She has served as president-elect, president, and chair of the Board of Directors for American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 

Richmond received a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Kansas State University and her PhD in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.