Professor earns ‘Outstanding Scientist’ honor
■ Geraldine Richmond
received the distinction for
her work on the properties of
water surfaces
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon Academy of Sciences
recently named University chem
istry professor Geraldine Richmond
the Outstanding Scientist for 2001
for her research in studying water
surfaces.
Richmond. who has been a mem
ber of the State Board of Higher Edu
cation for more than a year, said her
research provides a better under
standing of the differences between
properties on and below the surface
of water. This information yields
clues into how soaps work and
what happens to water molecules
when they interact with oil, she
said.
“It’s important to understand the
properties on the surface of water
because they interact with the
world around you,” Richmond said.
“There’s nothing more important in
the world than water.”
A research team of about a dozen
graduate students helps Richmond
carry out the complicated laser ex
periments.
Betsy Raymond, a graduate stu
dent in physics, works in Rich
mond’s lab and said she enjoys the
way the professor gives the team
members the freedom to come up
with their own ideas.
“Geraldine gives you a place to
start, and then lets you go and de
cide what you think the relevant
problems are,” she said.
The students do a lot of the
hands-on work in studying water
surfaces, Raymond said. The proce
dure, vibrational sum frequency
spectroscopy, begins by sending
two differently colored laser beams
into a dish of water. Raymond said
the mixing of the two colors releases
a completely new color, and the stu
dents then study how the molecules
in the new light vibrate.
Raymond said examining the vi
brations reveals how the molecules
are aligned at the surface, allowing
the scientists to examine the water
at microscopic levels not normally
visible to the naked eye.
Raymond said one discovery
Richmond and her team have made
using the laser technique involves
how soaps wodc when they interact
with water and what happens to the
water’s surface as more or less soap
is added.
“Soap has two parts,” she said.
“One part of its molecule likes wa
ter, and the other part doesn’t.”
She said the part of the soap mol
ecule that is hydrophobic grabs the
dirt so the water-friendly part can
wash it away.
“That’s why dirt works in soaps,”
Raymond said.
Dave Walker, a graduate student,
also works in Richmond’s lab. He is
currently in the beginning stages of
conducting a liquid interface exper
iment to learn how oil reacts with
water surfaces.
But because he has recently
joined the team, he has been doing
several hours of computer simula
tion work to prepare.
“I’m the young one in the lab,” he
said.
He said the ultimate goal for the
researchers is to examine and ex
plain the microscopic effects of wa
Katie Miller Emerald
Geraldine Richmond examines an example of a model that aided her in her research.
Richmond was recently named Outstanding Scientist for 2001.
ter that normally could not be seen
with the naked eye.
“We want to make that connec
tion with what we can and can’t
see,” he said.
Like Raymond, Walker also en
joys working with Richmond.
“She’s very flexible and very
open to the ideas of the students,”
Oregon Senate panel approves annual sessions measure
By Brad Cain
The Associated Press
SALEM — The push by lawmak
ers to have the Oregon Legislature
meet in annual sessions, rather
than every other year, advanced a
step Thursday when a Senate panel
supported placing the issue before
Oregon voters.
Republicans and Democrats alike
say Oregon’s biennial system, dat
ing back to 1858, no longer effec
tively serves a state that has experi
enced major growth and where
state government has become a $12
billion enterprise.
However, Bill Sizemore’s group,
Oregon Taxpayers United, said it
would oppose the move to annual
sessions on grounds that it eventu
ally could lead to having a full-time
Legislature and bigger government.
With little debate, members of
the Senate Rules Committee voted
to send the annual sessions meas
ure, SJR12, to the full Senate for
consideration.
The measure, aimed at the May
2002 ballot, would authorize the
Legislature to meet each January
and limit to 150 the total number of
days lawmakers could meet in a
two-year period.
Supporters of the move to annual
sessions said the current every-oth
er-year system no longer functions
well in an age of term limits.
Oregon’s 1992 term limits law
prohibits people from serving more
than six years in the House or eight
in the Senate.
Backers of SJR12 said the current
biennial system results in unpro
ductive, 11/2-year breaks between
sessions for lawmakers who now
can serve only a few terms before
being forced into retirement.
“I think people realize this process
isn’t being managed as well as it
could be,” said Sen. Randy Miller, R
Lake Oswego. “The interims are a
waste of time and with term limits
there is a lot of turnover and a loss of
continuity.”
Term limits aside, other law
makers argued that budgeting two
years at a time as Oregon does is
inefficient and requires a lot of
guesswork about how the econo
my will affect future revenue
flowing into state coffers.
Becky Miller, assistant director
of Sizemore’s organization, said
the anti-tax group thinks the move
to annual sessions “would just
mean they would be able to in
crease our taxes and the burdens
of government on people every
year, instead of every other year.”
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he said. “She’s a good mentor.”
Richmond said allowing her stu
dents to think for themselves is her
goal.
“Their education is to initially
take my idea and explore it,” she
said. “Hopefully, by the time they
leave, they’ll be asking their own
questions and teaching me, which
is what you hope for.”