Christine Hermann
2025 Sigma Xi Fellow
For her four decades of excellence in chemical education and mentorship, her innovative research in organic chemistry and laboratory pedagogy, and her dedicated service in advancing student engagement and public appreciation of science.
Biography
Dr. Christine Hermann has taught Organic Chemistry at Radford University for forty years. She earned a B.S. in chemistry from Columbus College, and M.S. and Ph.D in chemistry from Virginia Tech. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from Radford University in 2011 and recognized as one of the Distinguished Women of Radford University in 2012.
Dr. Hermann was chair of ChemEd 2009, which was a teaching and learning conference where teachers can share teaching experiences, classroom innovations, and laboratory experiments. Many faculty from the nearby universities served on the organizing committee.
Since 2011, she has served as co-director of the Blue Ridge Highlands Regional Science Fair. In this capacity, she contacts potential judges, organizes the awards, coordinates the fund-raising, and assigns volunteers to positions.
Within the Virgina Blue Ridge Section of the American Chemical Society, she has served as awards chair for more than 25 years and served as past chair. As awards chair, she solicited nominations for local outstanding high school chemistry teachers and outstanding chemistry seniors from each university. She has organized the annual VBRS-ACS undergraduate and high school poster session at Radford University for 32 years.
As national Vice President of Iota Sigma Pi, Dr. Hermann contacted chemistry department chairs and American Chemical Society local section chairs to encourage the nomination of female students, faculty, and professionals to become a part of Iota Sigma Pi, a National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry. With these efforts, the membership in Iota Sigma Pi has notably increased.
Dr. Hermann has revised the eighth and ninth editions of “The Systematic Identification of Organic Compounds” (Wiley) and wrote a Solutions manual to accompany this textbook. She also revised part of the seventh edition. This textbook is a manual on how to identify unknown compounds using solubilities, physical characteristics, derivatives, melting point, boiling point along with the use of nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared and mass spectrometry.
Dr. Hermann’s research involves the development of organic chemistry laboratory experiments. Her most recent publication is “Colorful Polymers of Polystyrene, Poly(methyl methacrylate), and Nylon 6,6,” which was published as an American Chemical Society book chapter in Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/bk-2021-1378.ch010). This publication describes an organic chemistry II lab experiment where students color the polymers with food coloring or crayons. Another paper – “Forensics Identification as an Organic Chemistry Lab” - has been accepted as an American Chemical Society book chapter for Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry Volume 2.
In her spare time, Dr. Hermann flies her vintage Cessna 140 around the New River Valley in southwest Virgina.
Dr. Hermann is one of the founding members of the Sigma Xi chapter at Radford University. The chapter was created in 2014. The Blue Ridge Highlands Regional Science Fair has been giving out a Sigma Xi award since 2016.