Chemist to be next president of US science organisation

The next president-elect of the US science organisation the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will be Geraldine Richmond, a chemist at the University of Oregon. Gerald Fink, a professor of genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will begin his one-year term as president of the AAAS in February.

Richmond’s research interests centre around surface chemistry and its uses in environmental remediation, self-assembly, atmospheric chemistry and energy alternatives. She has served on several US government scientific advisory boards and currently sits on the National Science Board, which governs the National Science Foundation and advises the US president and Congress. Richmond also founded and chairs COACh, an organisation that aims to help women succeed in the sciences and engineering in the US and developing countries. She earned her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, where her supervisor was George Pimentel, perhaps best known for his invention of the chemical laser.