The Oregon Academy of Sciences recently named University chemistry professor Geraldine Richmond the Outstanding Scientist for 2001 for her research in studying water surfaces.
Richmond, who has been a member of the State Board of Higher Education for more than a year, said her research provides a better understanding 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 experiments.
Betsy Raymond, a graduate student in physics, works in Richmond’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 decide 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 procedure, 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 students then study how the molecules in the new light vibrate.
Raymond said examining the vibrations 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 work 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 water, and the other part doesn’t.”
She said the part of the soap molecule 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 experiment to learn how oil reacts with water surfaces.
But because he has recently joined the team, he has been doing several hours of computer simulation 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 explain the microscopic effects of water that normally could not be seen with the naked eye.
“We want to make that connection with what we can and can’t see,” he said.
Like Raymond, Walker also enjoys working with Richmond.
“She’s very flexible and very open to the ideas of the students,” he said. “She’s a good mentor.”
Richmond said allowing her students 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.”