The odds aren’t good for snagging a Guggenheim Fellowship in chemistry.
Out of 2,800 artists, scholars and scientists who applied nationally this year, only 189 were selected; only two of those winners are chemists.
University chemistry professor Geri Richmond is one of them.
The Guggenheim Fellowship to Assist Research and Artistic Creation, administered by the New York-based John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, selects fellows on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for the future.
Fellows are first nominated by members in their academic community, said Richmond, then nominees are invited to apply.
Richmond said that it was hard to compare this award with the others but that it, “is very much an honor.” She was nominated by several other academics around the nation.
Richmond, who applied for the fellowship for the first time this year, believes she was a strong candidate because of her numerous publications and her active role in the scientific community.
The recipient of numerous awards, Richmond has also been given a 2005-06 Council for Chemical Research Diversity Award and was the sole winner of the Spiers Medal from Great Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry in 2004.
Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has granted more than $256 million to individuals. The average amount for the award is $40,200 this year and yet Richmond doesn’t know exactly how she will spend the money.
“The fellowship is to be able to do my science in creative ways so that could mean new equipment or even travel expenses,” she said.
The money has to be spent within a year, but that shouldn’t be a problem: Richmond’s research at the University specializes in physical and environmental chemistry, optics and spectroscopy, and surface and material science.
“I work in lasers and it is very, very expensive so it will consume the money very quickly,” she said.
Work under the fellowship will begin this fall and though Richmond will not be teaching undergraduates, she will continue to work with graduate students at the University. Richmond said they will be an integral part of the work she does with the money from the fellowship.
“I will unlikely be teaching everyday in the classroom setting but I teach everyday with my graduate students in labs and will continue to next year.”
Graduate student Adam Hopkins, who has been at the University for five years, is one of several students who assist Richmond in her research on surface and material science.
“We shoot two lasers at a system, at a water organic interface, and on the other side of the system three beams shine and we measure those beams. New equipment for measuring that signal, which is very, very small, would be great,” Hopkins said. “We have no idea what she going to do with the money yet but I hope it means I can buy more chemicals or some fun new equipment for the lab,” he said.
Hopkins said that the award is inspiring for him even though he does not have the same career goals as Richmond.
“It’s cool because so few people get it. It says here at Oregon, which is not a big-name university, we do some great science.”
Thomas Dyke, head of the Chemistry Department, agreed that one of the benefits of the award is the recognition it brings to the University.
“It’s a very prestigious award in academia. It gives recognition and allows (fellows) to do something that perhaps they couldn’t have done before,” Dyke said.
Richmond’s plans for the future are straightforward; her research remains a top priority.
“I want to continue to work with my students and teach and do the best research I can do,” she said.
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What is a Guggenheim Fellow?
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established by U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim in 1925 in memory of his son who died in 1922.
The Fellowships are awarded in order to further the development of scholars and artists by allowing them to engage in research in any field or in creation of any of the arts under the freest possible conditions, according to the Foundation’s Web site.