Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society is a non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious honor societies. Membership in Sigma Xi is by invitation only, where members nominate others on the basis of their research achievements or potential. Sigma Xi goals aim to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering. Many of the world's most influential scientists have been members of Sigma Xi, such as Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling, Barbara McClintock, and Sally Ride. Overview Sigma Xi has nearly 60,000 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. Sigma Xi was one of six honor societies that co-founded the ACHS on . Its participation was short lived, with the decision to withdraw and operate again as an independent society made just over a decade later, effective in . Today, Sigma Xi participates in a more loosely coordinated lobbying association of four of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honor societies, called the Honor Society Caucus. Its members include Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, and Omicron Delta Kappa.