Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi
ΣΞ
Founded	1886 (1886) Cornell University
Type	Honor Society
Scope	International
Motto	Companions in Zealous Research
Colors	Blue and   Gold
Publication	American Scientist
Chapters	350 Active in the United States, 170 Inactive, 20+ International
Members	60,000 active
Headquarters	3106 East NC Highway 54 Research Triangle Park, North Carolina United States
Website	sigmaxi.org

Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society (ΣΞ) is a non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential.

Information about

Sigma Xi has nearly 100,000 members who were elected to membership based on their research achievements and potential. It has more than 500 chapters in North America and around the world. In addition to publishing American Scientist magazine, Sigma Xi provides grants annually to promising young researchers and sponsors a variety of programs supporting ethics in research, science and engineering education, the public understanding of science, international research cooperation and the overall health of the research enterprise. The Society is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Motto and name

The Greek letters "Sigma" and "Xi" form the acronym of the Society's motto, Σπουδῶν Ξυνῶνες or "Spoudon Xynones," which translates as "Companions in Zealous Research." The word 'Honor' was added to the name of the Society at the 2016 Annual Meeting. According to Sigma Xi President Tee L. Guidotti,

"Sigma Xi, of course, is our basic name and has been since the organization was founded in 1886 as the scientific and engineering counterpart to Phi Beta Kappa. Like all “Greek letter” societies, whether professional or social, it is an acronym for the motto of the organization, Σπουδων Ξυνωνες (Spoudon Xynones), which translates as "companions in Zealous Research." For many years, we were referred to as “Society of the Sigma Xi.” In the early twentieth century, some in the leadership wanted “Sigma Xi” to be dropped altogether in favor of some formulation such as “Scientific Research Society of America.” In a strange quirk of history, both names survived because the organization split in the 1940s into an academic honor society (Sigma Xi) and an honor society for applied research and engineering (the Scientific Research Society of America, called RESA). RESA was a separate entity, wholly owned by Sigma Xi, and represented engineers and scientists at non-academic institutions, such as government and industrial research laboratories. In an even stranger development, Sigma Xi and RESA merged back together in 1974 and eventually began calling itself Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society."

Notable Alumni

More than 200 winners of the Nobel Prize have been Sigma Xi members, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Linus Pauling, Francis Crick and James Watson.

See also

• List of Sigma Xi members

External links

• Official website
• American Scientist
• Sigma Xi's Year of Water H2008 Blog