Biography of Professor Ruth Russo

I was born in Spokane, Washington, and completed the Honors Program at Gonzaga University, earning a B.S. in Chemistry (Magna Cum Laude) with a minor in Philosophy. I obtained my PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where I worked in the laboratory of Joel and Nancy Shaper. I joined the Whitman faculty in 1990, and share a joint appointment with my husband Jim in the Chemistry Department. I have taught Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, General Chemistry, Chemistry in the Natural World, and First Year Core. Currently, I'm teaching General Chemistry using the POGIL method (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning).

Academic interests include the structure and function of beta-1,4 galactosyltransferase, the history and philosophy of science, and the chemistry of coffee. I'm a member of Iota Sigma Pi (a National Honors Society for Women in Chemistry), the American Chemical Society, the Society for College Science Teaching (part of the National Science Teachers Association), and the History of Science Society. The paper I had the most fun writing was "A Natural History of Agonist" (Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 45(3):350-358, 2002), because I was able to contribute two corrections to the Oxford English Dictionary. My most recent manuscript has enabled me to bridge my reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey with a molecular view of nature: "The Heart of Steel: A Metallurgical Interpretation of Iron in Homer" will be published in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry in February 2005.