Vice President for Research and Innovation

Geraldine (Geri) Richmond is the Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) at the University of Oregon. She directs and oversees the university’s entire research enterprise. She is committed to enhancing research excellence and strengthening the role of research, scholarship, and creative activity across the university. She works alongside the President and Senior Vice President and Provost to strengthen existing research programs and develop new partnerships and collaborations that make the UO a key contributor to the cultural, scientific, and economic development of the state, nation, and the world.

As the UO’s chief research officer, Richmond oversees the majority of UO’s multidisciplinary research centers and institutes, strategic research initiatives and partnerships, research infrastructure, core facilities and administration, compliance and regulatory environment, innovation and commercialization efforts, and works with the UO donor community to support research initiatives. She collaborates with deans, faculty, and colleagues in areas that support the research mission of the university.

Richmond, who is also the Presidential Chair in Science and Professor of Chemistry, joined the UO in 1985. Prior to becoming the interim VPRI, Richmond was appointed by President Biden to serve for as Undersecretary for Science and Innovation at the US Department of Energy (DOE), where she oversaw all the fundamental and applied research in the Department of Energy, and 13 of the DOE national laboratories. She also served two terms as a member of the National Science Board for both President Obama and President Trump, and as the US State Department Science Envoy to the Lower Mekong River countries under Secretary Kerry. In 1999-2006 she served as the first faculty member of the Oregon Board of Higher Education at the request of Oregon Governors Kitzhaber and Kulongoski.

Bridging the fields of chemistry and physics, Richmond’s research involving postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduates has focused on understanding the molecular characteristics of water surfaces, studies that have relevance to environmental issues such as oil remediation, atmospheric chemistry, and alternative energy sources. In the classroom her efforts have focused on introductory chemistry, science literacy courses, and science communication. She has directed several important University of Oregon undergraduate research programs since 1986.

Richmond is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society.  Awards for her scientific accomplishments include the National Medal of Science from President Obama, the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Linus Pauling Legacy Award, the ACS Olin-Garvan Medal, the ACS Joel H. Hildebrand Award, and the American Physical Society (APS) Davisson-Germer Prize in Surface Physics, and the Gold Medal Award from the NY/NJ Section of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), the last to be awarded November 17, 2025. Richmond is a Fellow of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), the AAAS,  APS,  ACS, and SAS.

Richmond has a B.S. chemistry from Kansas State University and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.