Mary Virginia Orna, O.S.U., to present Rimes Lecture Feb. 26

MOBILE – The Spring Hill College Chemistry Department will host the annual Rimes Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 in Byrne Memorial Hall on the college campus. Mary Virginia Orna, O.S.U., will present “The Shroud of Turin and Other Mysteries: Uncovering Traces of the Past Through Science.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Orna, a sister of the Order of Saint Ursula, is professor of chemistry at the College of New Rochelle and editor-at-large of 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 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.

Orna is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 1989 New York State Professor of the Year and National Gold Medalist, the 1989 Merck Innovation 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.

The Rimes Lecture was created to honor the Rev. William J. Rimes, S.J., who dedicated more than 30 years to Spring Hill College as a student, professor and college president. The biology building, Yancey Hall, and the chemistry building, Diegnan Hall, were constructed while Rimes was president.

For more information or directions, call the Spring Hill College Division of Sciences at (251) 380-3070.