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Retired EOU chem prof on cutting edge of counting drops
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 Richard Hermens of La Grande demonstrates how a Drop Counter he and a team of three other chemists developed will make conducting experiments easier. - Observer photos/DICK MASON Hermens enjoys helping preserve local history. He also has an inventive mind, one that is helping shape how future chemical research will be conducted. For proof of the latter give the U.S. Patent office a call. Hermens is part of a team of four scientists that received a U.S. Patent for a high-tech Drop Counter on Aug. 19. The counter is designed to help chemists spend less time measuring and more time analyzing and creating while conducting experiments. The device allows scientists to precisely count the number of drops of a liquid substance being added to another while conducting experiments to evaluate chemical changes and reactions. For example, it is making it easier for scientists to determine how much of a base such as sodium hydroxide has to be added to an acidic substance like vinegar to neutralize it. The Drop Counter uses a light-emitting diode. Light is reflected off drops as they fall through a beam created by the diode. A photo diode sensor detects the light being reflected off each drop. Another device records the number of times light is reflected back, allowing chemists to easily count how many drops have been added to a chemical mix. Hermens and the team of scientists developed the Drop Counter in one week two years ago in Bozeman, Mont. The other scientists on the team are John Amend, a retired Montana State University chemistry professor; Dale Hammond, a retired Brigham Young University-Hawaii chemistry professor; and Alexander Whitla, a retired chemistry professor from Mt. Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.
 The Drop Counter is connected to a computer when used. - The Observer/DICK MASON It usually costs between $6,000 and $20,000 to apply for and receive a patent, in part because of attorney fees. Hermens and the other chemists on the team were questioned intensely and frequently by a patent attorney, one who submitted the formal application. The application process for the patent took two years. MicroLAB began selling the Drop Counter after it submitted its patent application in 2006. The counter is now used at about 100 colleges and universities, including EOU. A large number of counters have also been purchased by a distribution company in Australia. This is the second patent Hermens has received. He was also awarded one in 1987 along with two other chemists for a method of recovering uranium from waste ponds where nuclear fuel rods are manufactured.
 The Drop Counter invented by Hermens and three other scientists has a light-emitting diode. - Observer photos/DICK MASON While at Eastern, Hermens’ achievements were many. Some of the things he was recognized for include: • his selection as the Chemical Manufacturers Association’s national teacher of the year in 2000. • Eastern’s successful student chemistry club, which Hermens founded and advised. • EOU’s Science Journal, which Hermens founded in 1982. The annual publication is a collection of research articles by students. Hermens moved to La Grande in 1966 with his wife, Maxine, after teaching for three years at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. He has a master’s degree in chemistry from Oregon State University and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Idaho.
 This computer graph indicates how a chemical reacts to the addition of another at various levels. A Drop Counter measures and records the levels added. - The Observer/DICK MASON Hermens’ many interests include local history and efforts to save it. He and John Turner of La Grande own Grande Ronde Publishing Co., founded in the early 1980s. To date the company has published and reprinted about half a dozen local history books. Hermens hopes to publish more books in the future and remain involved in chemistry, which he developed a passion for as a teenager. “There are so many things we don’t understand, like the human body, the basis of which is chemistry. It is so intriguing.’’ |
