Mary Virginia Orna is Professor of Chemistry, Emerita, College of New Rochelle. She is also former Director of Educational Services at the Chemical Heritage Foundation and former Publications Coordinator of the Journal of Chemical Education. She received her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Fordham University.

She has lectured and published widely in the areas of color chemistry and archaeological chemistry. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Chemical Education, Color Research and Application, Studies in Conservation, Analytical Chemistry, Microchemical Journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Chemical Society monographs, and various other journals. She has also authored numerous book chapters and encyclopedia articles, twelve books and edited nine others. She is an ACS Fellow (2010) and active in several divisions of the American Chemical Society, having served as Chair, Program Chair and Treasurer of the Division of the History of Chemistry. She is currently serving as ACS Councilor and a member of the ACS Divisional Activities Committee.

She served as Treasurer and Member of the Examinations Institute Board of Trustees of the Division of Chemical Education for twelve years. She was also Program Chair for the 14th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education which was held at Clemson University in August, 1996. She is also former Associate Member of the Society Committee on Education, and former member of the Divisional Activities Committee, the Committee on Meetings and Expositions, the Committee on Committees, the Committee on Nominations and Elections, and the Council Policy Committee.

She is a 1984 recipient of the Chemical Manufacturing Association’s Catalyst Award for excellence in college chemistry teaching, the 1989 CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) New York State Professor of the Year and National Gold Medalist Award, a recipient of the 1989 Merck Innovation Award, the 1996 Western Connecticut ACS Section's Visiting Scientist Award and the 1996 recipient of the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry. She received the American Chemical Society’s 1999 George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education, the 2008 Henry Hill Award, the 2009 ACS Award for Volunteer Service, and the 2019 ACS Radding Award. She has presented plenary lectures and named lectureships on at least a dozen different occasions.

She is presently President of “ChemSource, Inc.” a major effort in chemistry teacher preparation and enhancement funded by the National Science Foundation, and also of Dwight D. Eisenhower Title IIA chemical education summer programs at the College of New Rochelle. 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 Engineering and Design. She also did research on ancient middle-eastern artifacts in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Museum and the Edelstein Center for the Analysis of Middle Eastern Textiles and Related Artifacts. She spent 1995 in Italy where she studied Italian language and examined Italian medieval manuscripts.

As a hobby, she enjoys constructing crossword puzzles and has been a frequent contributor to the Sunday New York Times, SciQuest, Clinical Chemistry News, American Laboratory, Today’s Chemist and other publications. She is an ACS tour speaker and has been an invited lecturer to every part of the United States and many countries in Europe, the Middle East, and the South Pacific. Two of her recent books, The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table’s Shadow Side (Oxford University Press) and Science History: A Traveler’s Guide (American Chemical Society and Oxford University Press) have had rave reviews. Her 2013 book, The Chemical History of Color (Springer) was recently very favorably reviewed in the Journal of Chemical Education in conjunction with the ACS National Chemistry Week theme on color and was rated the most popular book in the Springer series. She has three additional books hot off the press: Sputnik to Smartphones: A Half-Century of Chemistry Education, Carl Auer von Welsbach: Chemist, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Chemistry’s Role in Food Production and Sustainability: Past and Present and Archaeological Chemistry: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Past. In press with the Royal Society of Chemistry is March of the Pigments (due May, 2022).

The keynote speaker is sponsored by the Nell Mondy Lecture Series at Ouachita Baptist University.