LATEST NEWS

Student members can apply for the 2025 Lindau Nobel Student Fellowship to attend the summer Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Lindau Germany. For more information see: https://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings-events/lindau-nobel-laureate-meetings-fellowship?fbclid=IwY2xjawF0rl9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHa5F_fg7RLtJ-2sWyrfD8NbMGsqkpcmDaEQmrJeRalNdEgig3HbQza6vZA_aem_0IuIxY0fPsh7tzxqf1vQqw

We need you! Our chapter has open officer positions for Vice President and Secretary that need to be filled. All regular, associate, and student members are eligible. Terms are for two years. Please send nominations and self nominations to C.Richardson@charlotte.edu We will hold elections in mid- November.

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 29^th  3:00 PM- 4:00 PM Virtual Sigma Xi Information Meeting Want to learn about benefits of membership?
Join Zoom Meeting https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/j/99252366127?pwd=Am1xHqwqBUc83nkVQct6rRl9V08hYh.1

November 12^th 8:30 AM-12 noon  Biotechnology Coffee and Careers Networking Event

In conjunction with the Career Center and Biological Sciences. Graduate students can meet with regional professionals. Register soon- https://career.charlotte.edu/biotechnology-coffee-careers-networking-event

November 21^st Time and Place TBD Fall Elections and Business meeting

December 3^rd 2:30 PM-6 PM Honors College Research Symposium https://honorscollege.charlotte.edu/about-us-2-2-2/

Sigma Xi — The Scientific Research Honor Society was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a group of engineering students and a junior faculty member, Frank Van Vleck. From the beginning, the founders emphasized that the new scientific honor society would be broad in its outlook, devoted to all of science and engineering. Cornell geology professor Henry Shaler Williams soon became the fledgling society’s chief mentor, serving as the first elected president and a leader of the growing organization until the turn of the century.

Sigma Xi was designed to reward excellence in scientific research and to encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among scientists in all fields. In selecting a name and motto for the new honor society, the founders chose a combination of Greek letters–Sigma Xi–not being used by any other group. Later, a motto based on these initials was developed to confirm its purpose: Spoudon xynones, or “Companions in Zealous Research.” By 1887, Sigma Xi was holding “regular meetings for the discussion of scientific subjects,” and the following year, the group elected five women to full membership, which both promoted the interests of women and made their research more available to the scientific community. By that time, chapters had been established at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Rutgers College, as well as at Cornell. Through the 1890s the Society’s membership grew, and by the turn of the century Sigma Xi claimed more than 1,000 members in eight chapters.

Today, Sigma Xi has nearly 60,000 members in over 500 chapters in the U.S., Canada and other countries, including Switzerland, Thailand, Lebanon, New Zealand and Australia. Sigma Xi chapters are found wherever scientific research is undertaken in universities, colleges, industrial research facilities and government laboratories.

The Charlotte Chapter of Sigma Xi, newly reinstated in 2024, seeks to bring together intellectual communities who share an interest in science and technology not merely as technical achievements, but as significant ideas. To that end, we welcome members who recognize the many intersections of science, technology, and culture whether in philosophy, history, sociology, or literature (to name a few disciplines), .

For additional information about membership in Sigma Xi, the annual conference, annual student online showcase, or grants-in-aid of research, or simply about the Charlotte Chapter, please contact any current Officers including the current President Dr. Christine Richardson c.richardson@charlotte.edu