UD Sigma Xi chapter makes a comeback

3:17 p.m., April 29, 2004--Two professors are working to revitalize the University of Delaware chapter of Sigma Xi, an honorary society for science and engineering, by recruiting new members and presenting a distinguished guest speaker in May.

George H. Watson, Unidel Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Karen Rosenberg, associate professor and chairperson of anthropology, are seeking new Sigma Xi members—undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff—who have demonstrated noteworthy achievements in scientific research.

The University’s reactivated chapter is also sponsoring the May 5 lecture by Douglas Ubelaker, forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution and consultant to the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1886, Sigma Xi today has more than 70,000 members in 500 chapters. Membership is by invitation and, over time, nearly 200 Sigma Xi members have won the Nobel Prize. The University of Delaware, which first formed a club in 1950, received its charter for a chapter in 1958 but has been inactive in recent years.

“I became a member while an undergraduate physics major at Lafayette College,” Watson said. “I wrote a senior thesis on the results of my experiments and that qualified me for membership. My research adviser nominated me to that chapter in 1977.”

Watson, who also serves as associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, is secretary of UD’s chapter. He recently developed a collaborative research project involving students from both Delaware and Thomas Jefferson University chapters of Sigma Xi to develop problem-based learning curricular materials on ethics in research.

Rosenberg, a paleoanthropologist, is president of UD’s Sigma Xi chapter. “I didn’t have any personal experience with Sigma Xi before now,” she said, “except I knew the society was a great source of small grants and distinguished lecturers and its magazine does a good job of presenting scientific research to a general audience.”

Sigma Xi publishes the American Scientist magazine, supports a 75-year-old grants-in-aid program for student research, education and public awareness programs and a number of prestigious prizes and awards recognizing research accomplishments.

For more information about membership in the UD chapter, visit [www.udel.edu/sigma-xi/] or contact Melinda Duncan, associate professor of biological sciences, in 327 Wolf Hall or e-mail her at [duncanm@udel.edu].

Article by Cornelia Weil

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