Speaker

Sr. Mary Virginia Orna

Biographical Sketch

Sister Mary Virginia Orna, O.S.U. (Order of Saint Ursula) is professor of chemistry at the College of New Rochelle and Editor-at-Large, Chemical Heritage magazine. She has lectured and published widely in the areas of color chemistry and archaeological chemistry. She is active in several divisions of the American Chemical Society, having served as chair of the History and Chemical Education Divisions. She is a recipient of the following major awards: the 1984 CMA Catalyst Award for excellence in college chemistry teaching, the 1989 New York State Professor of the Year and National Gold Medalist, the 1989 Merck Innovation Award, the 1996 ACS Visiting Scientist Award, the 1996 James Flack Norris Award, the 1999 ACS George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education, and the 2001 New England Association of Chemistry Teachers J. A. Timm Award for excellence in chemistry teaching. She is presently president of ChemSource,Inc., a major effort in chemistry teacher preparation and enhancement funded by the National Science Foundation. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Israel (1994-95), where she lectured at The Hebrew University, The Weizmann Institute of Science, and Shenkar College of Textile Technology.

Dr. William B. Jensen received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D degrees in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After teaching inorganic chemistry at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati in 1986 as Oesper Professor of Chemical Education and History of Chemistry. His research interests include Lewis acid-base chemistry, chemical periodicity, and the history of inorganic and physical chemistry. He is the author of the monographs, The Lewis Acid-Base Concepts: An Overview (1980), Mendeleev on the Periodic Law: Selected Writings 1869-1905 (2002), and Fin de Siecle Chemistry: A Brief Survey of 600 Years of Chemical History for Students of Chemistry (2004). He is also the founder and former editor of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. In addition to his teaching and research activities, he also serves as the curator of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati.