Geraldine Richmond is the 2019 Linus Pauling Legacy Award Recipient

Dr. Geraldine (Geri) Richmond, a renowned professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, is being honored as the 2019 winner of the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, sponsored by the Oregon State University Libraries and Press. Dr. Richmond is a Presidential Chair in Science at UO in addition to being a member of the Chemistry faculty.

As part of the celebration marking the award, Richmond will deliver a free public lecture on Wednesday, May 22nd at 7:00 p.m. at OSU’s Valley Library in the fourth floor Rotunda. The lecture’s title is “The Importance of Global Scientific Engagement.”

The Pauling Legacy Award recognizes outstanding achievement in a subject once of interest to Linus Pauling. Richmond is the tenth winner of the prestigious award; four past recipients have been Nobel Prize winners. Each awardee has been honored with a framed certificate, engraved medallion and $2,000 honorarium.

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Richmond’s research using laser spectroscopy and computational methods focuses on understanding environmentally and technologically important processes that occur at liquid surfaces. In the words of Dr. Richard van Breemen, Director of the Linus Pauling Institute and member of the Pauling Legacy Award nominating committee, Richmond’s work “has applications in energy production, environmental remediation and atmospheric chemistry that can impact human health.”

Another member of the nominating committee, Horning Professor of the Humanities Emerita Dr. Mary Jo Nye, noted that Richmond’s “chemical research on molecular structure and atmospheric chemistry is award-winning, as is her role in teaching and encouraging women in the sciences, complemented by her dedicated professional service.”

Richmond herself recalled that

I was speechless – which is rare for me – when I got the call and was told that I had won the Linus Pauling Legacy Award. I kept saying, ‘Wait, can you say that again?’ Linus Pauling is really my Oregon role model, with his amazing contributions to both science and humanity. I am truly honored and look forward to coming up to Oregon State for the award ceremony and seeing his collection at the library.

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Dr. Richmond receiving the 2013 National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama

A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Richmond has served in leadership roles on many international, national and state governing and advisory boards. She is currently the U.S. Science Envoy to the Lower Mekong River Countries, and is likewise serving as Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is recent past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is the incoming president of the Sigma Xi Scientific Honor Society. Richmond is also the founding director of COACh, a grass-roots organization formed in 1998 that has helped more than 20,000 women scientists and engineers to advance their careers worldwide.

Richmond will add the Pauling Legacy Award to a lengthy and impressive list of previous decorations. Among them are the 2018 Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the National Medal of Science (2013) – both awards previously bestowed upon Pauling as well. She has also received the Joel H. Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Liquids (2011, ACS), and the Speirs Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2004). Awards for her education, outreach and science capacity-building efforts include the ACS Charles L. Parsons Award for Outstanding Public Service (2013), the ACS Award for Encouraging Women in the Chemical Sciences (2005), and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (1997).

Scenes from the 2016 Pauling Legacy Award Event

A full house gathered at the Oregon Historical Society Museum last week to hear Dr. Jane Lubchenco deliver her 2016 Linus Pauling Legacy Award address, “Scientists Making Waves and Bringing Hope.”

In her presentation, which is available online here, Lubchenco detailed a collection of scientific activities and policy initiatives that are helping to rehabilitate the world’s fisheries and that inspire optimism for the health of our oceans moving forward.

Lubchenco’s talk focused in particular on the positive impact that the implementation of Rights-Based fisheries management policies have made in promoting sustainable fishing practices world-wide. In addition, the creation of marine reserves and the formation of international agreements to more strictly police and prosecute illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, have fostered, in Lubchenco’s view, an increasingly stable marine environment in which the ocean’s bounty might be rehabilitated and used more widely.

A few images from a memorable evening are included below.

[All photos by Mike Dicianna.]

Invited guests mingling at a reception held prior to Dr. Lubchenco’s talk.

Jane Lubchenco receiving the Pauling Legacy Award certificate from Faye Chadwell, University Librarian and Director of the OSU Press.

A close-up of the Pauling Legacy Award certificate.

Lubchenco posing with the Pauling Legacy Award medal.

The crowd assembling at the Oregon Historical Society Museum prior to Dr. Lubchenco’s talk.

Lubchenco’s talk was introduced by Dr. Cynthia Sagers, OSU’s Vice President for Research.

Lubchenco in lecture.

Evidence of a tough loss for Oregon Agricultural College the autumn after Pauling graduated.

Jane Lubchenco is the 2016 Linus Pauling Legacy Award Recipient

Dr. Jane Lubchenco

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Jane Lubchenco will receive the 2016 Linus Pauling Legacy Award in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday, April 26th.

Lubchenco will receive the Legacy Award and deliver a lecture at an event that is free and open to the public.  Details are as follows.

Scientists Making Waves and Bringing Hope

2016 Linus Pauling Legacy Award Lecture, to be delivered by Dr. Jane Lubchenco.

Tuesday, April 26th, 7:30 PM.

Oregon Historical Society Museum, 1200 SW Park Ave., Portland, Oregon.

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President Obama receives a briefing in the Situation Room of the White House on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, July 21, 2010. Lubcheno is seated at right.

Dr. Lubchenco holds the title of university distinguished professor and advisor in Marine Studies at Oregon State University and was formerly the administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and under secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. She is the ninth recipient of the Legacy Award, which was first given in 2001 to recognize achievement in an area once of interest to Linus Pauling.

In addition to her work at Oregon State University, Lubchenco is currently serving as the first U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean and is an international expert on marine ecology, environmental science and climate change. She is a pioneer in the development of marine protected areas and reserves and in fisheries reform, which are complementary efforts to return fisheries to sustainability and profitability while also protecting habitats and biodiversity.

With a Ph.D. in ecology from Harvard University, Lubchenco is one of the most highly cited ecologists in the world, and she has received numerous awards including a MacArthur “genius” award and 20 honorary doctorates. Her academic career as a professor began at Harvard University and continued at Oregon State University (1977-2009) until her appointment as Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Following her work at NOAA, Lubchenco was Distinguished Visitor in Public Service at Stanford University and then she returned to Oregon State.

The OSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center has conducted two oral history interviews with Lubchenco, which are available online. Lubchenco also participated in a conference that was organized by the OSU Libraries in 2007 and titled “The Scientist as Educator and Public Citizen.” Her lecture from that event, “Advocates for Science: The Role of Academic Environmental Scientists,” may be viewed here.

Lubchenco’s lecture in Portland is wheelchair accessible. Individuals requiring other accommodations should contact Don Frier at 541-737-4633 or don.frier@oregonstate.edu by April 20 so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

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The Pauling Legacy Award Medal

The Linus Pauling Legacy Award was founded in 2001 by Pauling’s eldest son, Linus Pauling Jr., and was originally named the Linus Pauling Centennial Award.  The Oregon State University Libraries assumed administrative responsibilities for the award in 2004 and have granted it biennially ever since.

Past recipients have included four Nobel Prize winners – Joseph Rotblat (2001), Roderick MacKinnon (2008), Roger Kornberg (2010), and Roald Hoffmann (2012). Honorees receive a framed certificate, an engraved medallion, and an honorarium of $2,000.

Zia Mian Lecture Now Available Online

The fully transcribed video of Dr. Zia Mian’s lecture, “Out of the Nuclear Shadow: Scientists and the Struggle Against the Bomb,” is now available on the website of the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center.  Mian gave the talk on the occasion of his receipt of the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, presented on April 21, 2014.  Mian was the eighth recipient of this award, granted every other year by the OSU Libraries.

In his lecture, Mian provides an overview of the responsibilities that scientists have historically assumed with respect to nuclear issues, pointing to Linus Pauling and Leó Szilárd as particularly impactful examples for later generations. Moving to contemporary affairs, Mian paints a downbeat picture of current trends in the nuclear realm, noting the United States’ plan to massively modernize its nuclear complex and the continuation of sabre-rattling in nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

In the midst of this alarming scene, Mian notes that the world’s attention is increasingly moving away from nuclear issues as climate change and other problems of the day capture the news cycle. Mian reiterates the devastating impact that a nuclear conflagration would make upon Earth; worldwide famine and extreme planetary cooling being among the likely outcomes. The scenario is such that Mian, in echoing the Pugwash Conference of 1955, suggests that “those who know the most are the most gloomy.”

Zia Mian directs the Project on Peace and Security in South Asia, at the Program on Science and Global Security. The editor of numerous books, his research and teaching focuses on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy policy, especially in Pakistan and India, and on issues of nuclear disarmament and peace. He has also produced two documentary films, “Pakistan and India Under the Nuclear Shadow” (2001) and “Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India” (2004). He is Co-Editor of Science & Global Security, an international journal of technical analysis for arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation policy. He is also a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM).

Previously, he has taught at Yale University and Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and worked at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge (Mass.), and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. He has a Ph. D. in physics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Our past coverage of Mian’s work and visit – including an exclusive interview conducted by the Pauling Blog – is available here.  Additional information on the history of the Pauling Legacy Award, as well as links to four additional past lectures by Roald Hoffmann, Roger Kornberg, Roderick MacKinnon and John D. Roberts, is available at the award’s homepage.

Scenes from the 2014 Pauling Legacy Award Event

On Monday, April 21st, Dr. Zia Mian became the eighth individual to receive the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, granted every other year to an individual who has achieved in an area once of interest to Linus Pauling.

Mian’s talk, “Out of the Nuclear Shadow: Scientists and the Struggle Against the Bomb,” provided an informative and often sobering view of the history of anti-nuclear activism within the scientific community and the challenges that the world continues to face today as nuclear technologies become more widespread.  Mian’s talk, once transcribed, will be made freely available on the website of the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center in the coming weeks.  We’ll be sure to pass along word as soon as it goes live.

In the meantime, here’s a glimpse of the event, which took place at the Oregon Historical Society Museum in downtown Portland.

Dr. Mian with former OSU Libraries Resident Scholar, Linda Richards.

Guests mingling at the pre-dinner reception.

A peek at the VIP dinner that preceded Dr. Mian’s talk.

Zia Mian posing with the Pauling Legacy Award medal.

Mian delivering his remarks upon receiving the Legacy Award.

University Librarian and Press Director Faye Chadwell, greeting the audience.

Dr. Jose-Antonio Orosco, Director of the OSU Peace Studies Program, introducing Dr. Mian.

Zia Mian in lecture.

Zia Mian is the 2014 Pauling Legacy Award Winner

Happy Linus Pauling Day!  Today marks the 113th anniversary of Pauling’s birth and, as has become tradition here at the Pauling Blog, we celebrate with an announcement: the recipient of the 2014 Linus Pauling Legacy Award is Dr. Zia Mian.

A physicist by training, Mian follows in the Pauling tradition through his deep commitment to helping solve some of the most vexing social issues confronting world society today.  Mian is a research scientist at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, directing its Project on Peace and Security in South Asia.  His research and teaching focus on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy policy, especially in Pakistan and India, and on issues of nuclear disarmament and peace.

A prolific author and engaging speaker, Mian is co-editor of Science & Global Society, an international journal of technical analysis for arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation policy. He is also a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials and has edited a number of reports issued by the group. He has likewise helped to produce two documentary films on peace and security in South Asia – “Pakistan and India under the Nuclear Shadow,” (2001) and “Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India” (2004). A native of Pakistan, Mian earned his Ph. D. in physics from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

As we continue, throughout 2014, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Linus Pauling’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mian’s acceptance of the Pauling Legacy Award would seem to be especially fitting.  Pauling, of course, received his award for his tireless campaign to end nuclear weapons testing.  Half a century later, Mian continues the quest to stem weapons proliferation and secure a more peaceful world.

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The Linus Pauling Legacy Award medal.

Sponsored by the Oregon State University Libraries and Press, the Linus Pauling Legacy Award is granted every other year to an individual who has achieved in an area once of interest to Linus Pauling.  As with past recipients, Dr. Mian will deliver a public lecture in Portland, Oregon that is free of charge and open to anyone who is interested. Here are the details of this event:

• What: “Out of the Nuclear Shadow: Scientists and the Struggle Against the Bomb.” Linus Pauling Legacy Award Lecture by Dr. Zia Mian. Free and open to the public.
• When: Monday, April 21, 2014; 7:30 PM
• Where: Oregon Historical Society Museum, Portland, Oregon

For more information see this page, contact the OSU Libraries and Press at 541-737-4633 or email the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at scarc[at]oregonstate[dot]edu

Roald Hoffmann video – and two others – are now available

Roald Hoffmann, April 2012.

The fully transcribed video of Dr. Roald Hoffmann’s presentation, “Indigo – A Story of Craft, Religion, History, Science and Culture,” is now available on the Special Collections & Archives Research Center website.  Hoffmann’s talk was delivered in conjunction with his receipt of the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, presented in Portland on April 19, 2012.

A packed house of some three-hundred people was thoroughly engrossed by Hoffmann’s lecture, which lent credence to the professor’s reputation as a talented speaker.  In tracing the historical development of indigo, Hoffmann first noted that Hebrew scripture has required, from very early on, that a small tassle of the garments worn by observant Jewish males be dyed blue. For generations this decree presented something of a problem in that the only known source of indigo in ancient times was the gland of a specific type of Mediterranean snail – 10,000 of which were required to produce a single gram of dye.

As technologies advanced, various plant species were discovered that could produce a similar shade of blue. However, as Hoffmann noted, the world would need to be completely covered with indigo plants ten feet high to color the 2-3 billion pairs of blue jeans now thought to be produced each year. Hoffmann used this statistic to expound upon the power of chemistry and its ability to create synthetic forms of the dye.

Dr. Hoffmann was the fourth Nobel laureate to receive the Legacy Award and the seventh honoree overall. Previous awardees include chemists Roger Kornberg, Roderick MacKinnon and Jack Roberts, and biologist Matthew Meselson.

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Paul Emmett, ca. 1970s.

Two other lectures, both by past OSU Libraries Resident Scholars, are also now freely available online.

“The Useful Science of Paul Emmett,” given by Dr. Burtron Davis of the University of Kentucky, discusses Davis’ ongoing research in support of a biography of Emmett (1900-1985), who is remembered today as the “Dean of Twentieth-Century Catalysis Chemistry.”

Emmett is recalled by Davis – once a post-doctoral student of Emmett’s – to have been a kind and talented man who enjoyed a long and distinguished career. Best known for his formulation, with Stephen Brunaur and Edward Teller, of the BET equation, (which Davis calls “Nobel quality work”) Emmett also made major contributions to the scientific understanding of ammonia synthesis and the Fischer-Tropsch process. In reviewing these highlights of Emmett’s biography, Davis’ lecture provides both an overview of Emmett’s major scientific achievements while also lending a glimpse into Emmett’s habits and personality from one who knew him and has continued to study his work.

A second lecture, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Life of Ava Helen Pauling,” was delivered by Oregon State University professor of history Dr. Mina Carson, who is writing a biography of Ava Helen.  Carson’s talk, which was given in late 2009, reflects her thinking at that time as she developed the framework of her book, which will be published in 2013.

At the time, she noted that attempting to write the life of Ava Helen Pauling forces the biographer to confront a number of difficult questions. Perhaps the most vexing is this: how does the biographer write the life of a wife? In particular, a wife who enjoyed her own world-changing career but whose life and work were inseparably fused with, and in many ways dependent upon, her husband’s work and fame?  In ruminating on these topics, Carson also reflects on the major choices that Ava Helen made at critical points in her life as she sought to clarify her own interests and identity.

These three releases comprise only the latest additions to the large cache of digitized video available on the SCARC website.  The full list of contents is available here.

Scenes from the 2012 Linus Pauling Legacy Award

A capacity crowd of some three-hundred people gathered in Portland last Thursday April 19th to hear Dr. Roald Hoffmann deliver a fascinating lecture, “Indigo: A Story of Craft, Religion, History, Science and Culture.”  Dr. Hoffmann traveled to Oregon to receive the seventh Linus Pauling Legacy Award, which was granted during a dinner that preceded his public lecture.  A few images of the evening are below.

[All photos by Christy Turner]

Roald Hoffmann delivering his Pauling Legacy Award lecture.

Dinner venue for the evening – The Fireside Room at the Embassy Suites Hotel, downtown Portland.

Dr. Hoffmann speaking with Becky Warner, OSU Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and International Programs; Brent Steele, OSU Political Science professor; and Rick Spinrad, OSU Vice President for Research.

Linda Richards, former OSU Libraries Resident Scholar, speaking with Linus Pauling Jr. (wearing his indigo aloha shirt!).

Guests mingling before dinner.

Guests seated for dinner. In the foreground is Ken Hedberg, a Caltech Ph.D. who worked with Pauling in the 1940s.

Hoffmann receiving the Pauling Legacy Award certificate from OSU University Librarian Faye Chadwell and Linus Pauling Jr.

Hoffmann holding the Pauling Legacy Award medal.

Roald Hoffmann, 2012 Pauling Legacy Award winner.

The large crowd gathering for Hoffmann’s lecture. Some folks showed up more than an hour early to insure a seat and one group came all the way from Astoria, nearly two hours away!

Faye Chadwell welcoming the audience.

Dr. Mary Jo Nye, OSU History of Science professor emeritus, introducing Dr. Hoffmann.

Roald Hoffmann in lecture.

Hoffmann’s lecture was filled with striking imagery.

Hoffmann in Israel with colleague and co-author Shira Leibowitz Schmidt. They were in search of the original source of indigo, a specific kind of Mediterranean snail.

Roald Hoffmann is the 2012 Pauling Legacy Award Winner

Today marks the 111th anniversary of Linus Pauling’s birth and what better way to mark the occasion than by announcing the recipient of an award named after Dr. Pauling?

Dr. Roald Hoffmann, chemist, educator, author and Nobel laureate, is the seventh person to be given the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, which is granted every other year to an individual who has achieved in an area once of interest to Linus Pauling.  The award is sponsored by the Oregon State University Libraries.

As part of the celebration marking Hoffmann’s acceptance of the decoration, he will be delivering a free public lecture in Portland, OR.  Here are the details

What: “Indigo – A Story of Craft, Religion, History, Science and Culture,” free public lecture by Dr. Roald Hoffmann

Where: Embassy Suites Hotel – Colonel Lindbergh Room, 319 SW Pine Street, Portland, Oregon

When: Thursday April 19th, 8:00 PM

Seating is limited and we suggest that individuals or groups interested in attending reserve seats.  To do so, please contact the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at 541-737-2075 or special[dot]collections[at]oregonstate[dot]edu.

A renowned speaker and writer, Roald Hoffmann is best known within scientific circles for his work in applied theoretical chemistry. With Kenichi Fukui, he received the 1981 Nobel Chemistry prize “for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions.” As with Linus Pauling before him, much of Hoffmann’s career as a chemist has been devoted to determining the structure and properties of large molecules and to communicating these characteristics to both professional colleagues and students alike.

Hoffmann has likewise contributed significantly to improving science education for the general public. He participated in the production of a popular television program titled “The World of Chemistry” (1990) and has published a number of books written for the lay science enthusiast. Hoffmann has also made his mark as an author of fiction through the release of numerous collections of poetry as well as three plays. One theatrical production, “Oxygen,” was co-written with chemist Carl Djerassi and has been performed in ten languages worldwide.

Characteristic of a man with many interests, Hoffmann’s Legacy Award talk promises to be wide ranging in nature.  Here is the abstract of what we can expect on April 19th:

One way to see the role of a desirable blue pigment, indigo, in world culture, is that it has served remarkably to intertwine craft, fashion, religion, power, and science. Even if some people would like to keep them separate. The story begins with the prescription by the Hebrews in Numbers of a blue pigment for ritual use (and its role in a critical biblical rebellion), the parallel story of Tyrian purple and its uses in the Roman world, continues with the animal and plant sources of that pigment worldwide, the historical loss of the art of making snail indigo, on to chemistry and blue jeans. Some observations on the relationship of science and religion will emerge along the way.

Born in Zloczow, Poland in 1937, Roald Hoffmann is a survivor of the Nazi occupation of eastern Europe. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College in 1958 and his Ph. D. from Harvard University in 1962. He has received numerous honors, including over twenty-five honorary degrees. He is the only person ever to have received the American Chemical Society’s awards in three different specific subfields of chemistry – the A. C. Cope Award in Organic Chemistry, the Award in Inorganic Chemistry, and the Pimentel Award in Chemical Education.

The Pauling Legacy Award is granted every other year to an individual who has contributed to an area once of interest to Linus Pauling.  Past recipients have included Nobel laureates Joseph Rotblat, Roderick MacKinnon and Roger Kornberg, as well as Harvard University biologist Matthew Meselson and Caltech chemist John D. Roberts.

The Linus Pauling Legacy Award medal.

Scenes from the 2010 Linus Pauling Legacy Award Event

Dr. Roger Kornberg received the 2010 Linus Pauling Legacy Award this past Tuesday and lectured before a capacity crowd at the Oregon Historical Society’s Miller Pavilion.  Here are a few images from an entertaining and illuminating evening.

Miller Pavilion, the setting for Dr. Kornberg's lecture.

The event banquet, held in the Oregon Historical Society's Madison Room.

Dr. Kornberg and Oregon State University President Emeritus, Dr. John Byrne.

Dr. Linus Pauling Jr., speaking on the origins of the Pauling Legacy Award.

Dr. Kornberg receiving the 2010 Pauling Legacy Award.

A portion of the crowd assembled for Kornberg's lecture.

The presentation sparked a great number of thoughtful questions.

Fully transcribed video of Dr. Kornberg’s lecture will be made available soon on the OSU Libraries Special Collections website.

(All photos courtesy of Philip Vue.)