Appendix to the Report of the Executive Director
for the Year Ending June 30, 2000

Fiscal Year 2000 Chapter Highlights
Among other activities during the year, the Middle Tennessee State University Chapter sponsored its annual Expanding Your Horizons in Math and Science program, a day-long conference designed to introduce more than 250 middle school girls to careers in science, math, engineering and technology.

A primary purpose of the Pace College Chapter's annual ethics forum is to encourage students to become critical thinkers as they confront cutting edge issues in research. The forum also acknowledges the importance of these issues and the fact that university campuses are the best, most logical places for these discussions to happen.

As part of annual National Chemistry Week, the Ramapo College of New Jersey Chapter joined other organizations in hosting a series of talks that educated and stimulated an interest in science for more than 250 area students. The program was videotaped for wider distribution to schools within the region.

The Rice University-Texas Medical Center Chapter has established a science education partnership with Houston's Northbrook Middle School in which Sigma Xi volunteers offer lectures and demonstrations on-site or broadcast them to the school from their university laboratories via special audiovisual hook-ups.

Held in conjunction with the Illinois Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for high school students, the Southern Illinois University Chapter's Research Day poster conference gave students and faculty an opportunity to highlight research being conducted on campus.

In the University of Calgary Chapter's High School Enrichment Program, 40 academically advanced seniors spent one school day a week, for up to five months, in university labs working side-by-side with professors and/or graduate students on individual or group projects. At the end of the year, students received Sigma Xi certificates of achievement at a symposium where they present their research.

Program topics that helped Sigma Xi members revitalize the Vassar College Chapter included Lyme disease, the use of science in crime scene investigations and the science of the snake's tongue. Several chapter members also helped organize and judge a regional science fair for students from fifth grade to high school.

For the Rutgers Chapter's Recognition of Excellence in Science Teaching program, area school superintendents nominated 25 teachers who had made outstanding contributions to science education. Three teachers were selected to receive awards: Suzanne Wells of Ridge High School, Danita Guarino of Linwood Middle School and Jennifer Szemborski of J.F. Kennedy Elementary School.

Among other activities, the Stevens Institute of Technology Chapter hosted a tribute to several outstanding high school science and math teachers as an outgrowth of a partnership developed by Sigma Xi member Ajay Bose between the institute and high schools in the region.

For the 46th year, the NRL-Edison Chapter honored researchers for their achievements in pure and applied science. The honorees were David Singh for pure science and Douglas Chrisey for applied science. The chapter also instituted a Young Investigator Award this year, based on criteria for the national Sigma Xi award, and presented it to Gregory Collins.

The 10th annual Research Day hosted by the Marshall University Chapter provided an opportunity for 46 undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Science and the School of Medicine to present their work, either orally or in a poster session.

To accompany a formal banquet and award ceremony, the Villanova University Chapter co-sponsored a public lecture by this year's recipient of the university's prestigious Mendal Medal, 1996 Nobel laureate Peter Charles Doherty, who spoke on "How We Deal with Virus Infections."

In its 10th year, the Graduate Research Interaction Day co-sponsored by the University of Maryland Chapter expanded into a Graduate Student Appreciation Week, with support from the University of Maryland and the Pepsi Corporation. Including organizers, judges, students and spectators, approximately 600 people participated.

The Northwestern Pennsylvania Chapter's public forum on evolution attracted an audience of about 70, plus television and newspaper coverage. It was held at Gannon University, and five Sigma Xi panelists covered the topics of archaeology, physics, astronomy, biochemistry and anatomy/theology.

This year's highlights for the National Institute of Standards and Technology Chapter included the annual Postdoctoral Poster Presentation, a popular public colloquium series that included nine invited lectures and promotion of research and education through participation in area science fairs.

The Dupont Chapter co-sponsored a lecture by naturalist Jim Fowler, of television's Wild Kingdom, and also got to host his daughter, Lynn Fowler, for a talk on the Galapagos Islands, where she has lived and conducted research for the past 20 years.

Among other activities last year, the Montclair State University Chapter held its 23rd annual Sigma Xi Student Research Conference, at which 63 undergraduates and graduate students presented data from faculty supervised research projects to an audience of about 200.

A seminar by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner began the St. Joseph's University Chapter's 11th annual student research symposium, which drew posters by more than 150 students and faculty mentors from 13 colleges and universities in five states.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo Chapter again co-sponsored the Hawaii District Science Fair, in which 180 prizes were awarded to more that 50 students, three of whom went on to win at the statewide level. The chief judge and organizer was Sigma Xi member Marlene Hapai, whose fellow members Richard Crowe and George Curtis received special recognition for their more than 10 years of service as judges.

Ten students who participated in the Brazos Valley Regional Science and Engineering Fair were honored by the Texas A&M University Chapter with a year's subscription to American Scientist and certificates of achievement. The chapter recruited university faculty, staff and students to serve as judges for the fair.

The Santa Clara University Chapter this year presented a certificate of appreciation to physicist William Duffy, on the occasion of his retirement, in recognition of his role as a founding member of the chapter and his 40 years as a mentor to undergraduate students.

The Eastern New Mexico University Chapter sponsored two popular workshops on science and ethics that were conducted by three of its members. The lively discussions covered such issues as authorship practices, conflicts of interest in research and writing letters of reference.

The San Diego Chapter initiated eight full members associated with various scientific research institutions in Ensenada and hopes they will form the nucleus to found Sigma Xi's second chapter in Mexico. The International Committee of Sigma Xi helped by paying the first year dues for the initiates, and the San Diego Chapter will pay the initiation fees.

The University of New Mexico Chapter hosted 10 Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturers (one per month) from all over the country for its Public Talks in Science and Society series, which has been rated the best program on campus for the past 11 years.

A seminar series on a broad range of topics in environmental sciences was sponsored by the South Florida Water Management District Chapter. The seminars included both in-house experts and invited speakers from academia and other agencies.

This was the second year of the Charleston Chapter's Charleston Science Net, the open-access, moderated listserver hosted by Sigma Xi's administrative offices. Chs-Sci-Net has proven to be a valuable resource for sharing news and information among the diverse institutions of higher learning, government laboratories and public and private schools of low country South Carolina.

This year the Louisiana State University Chapter awarded graduate student grants totaling $1,100 to assist in the scientific research necessary for the completion of their degrees. The grants may be used for any purpose that supports the student's research, including field travel to acquire data.

Nine semifinalists representing five high schools competed in the Central Arkansas Chapter's sixth annual Science-in-Society Debates. This year's topic concerned public vs. private ownership of human genetic material, and the debate finals were held at the chapter's annual spring banquet at Little Rock's Museum of Discovery.

Every year, the Tuskegee University Chapter provides the Sigma Xi Edward M. Jenkins Scientific Equipment Award to help a local high school and a middle school buy needed scientific equipment that will aid in teaching.

With co-sponsorship by the EPA Athens Research Lab, the University of Georgia Chapter continued its Encouragement-in-Science Essay Competition for fourth and fifth graders, which awards individual certificates of recognition and a free field trip to a local research institution for the winners and their classmates.

The Ithaca College Chapter supported undergraduate research by sending 20 students to Wagner College for the Eastern Colleges Science Conference, where four earned awards for best presentation. The chapter also sent four students to Missoula, Montana, for the 14th National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

The University of Toronto Chapter is best known for its annual public lecture series that covers diverse topics of current scientific interest, which this year included "Photonics--The Next Trillion Dollar Industry" and "The Quality of Urban Life: How We Measure It and Why We Care."

In conjunction with a lecture on Census 2000 by American Scientist author Tommy Wright, chief of the Census Bureau's Statistical Research Division, the Syracuse Chapter enlisted the department of African American studies to co-sponsor a student essay contest on "minorities and the census undercount," which carried a cash award.

In cooperation with the Ford's High School Science and Technology Program, the Ford Motor Company Chapter hosted a Saturday morning session on "Invention and Intellectual Property" for approximately 200 local high school students and their teachers, including 65 minority students from the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program.

This year, the Indiana University Chapter co-sponsored a symposium and awarded prizes for the best presentations by high school students who participated in the Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program (STARS) on campus. The students worked in faculty labs.

The University of Illinois at Chicago Chapter organized, staffed and co-sponsored the first undergraduate research forum on campus, presenting several different awards to accommodate varying types of research.

This year marked the 16th annual week-long poster session sponsored by the University of Minnesota at Duluth Chapter, which attracted approximately 35 posters by Sigma Xi members and undergraduate students. More than 150 were in attendance for the opening ceremony.

Members of the Ohio Northern University Chapter reported that their speaker exchange with Ball State University in Indiana has proven to be a good way to gain exposure to research going on at another institution. The chapter reports this is especially useful because at small universities the group of faculty doing research tends to be somewhat isolated.

The University of Minnesota Chapter organized and sponsored the Undergraduate Student Research Symposium at the 1999 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, a major part of which involved a poster session featuring research by 58 students from around the country.

There were three winners and one honorable mention this year for the 2000 Sigma Xi Prize for Excellence in Science sponsored by the University of Chicago Chapter. The awards, which recognize outstanding undergraduate research, were announced at the 44th Annual College Honors Awards Assembly, where winners were each presented a check and certificate.

The Hope College Chapter invited Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Kevin Padian to give the keynote address at the college's High School Science Day, attended by more than 600 students from 29 high schools in Michigan and Indiana. Padian also participated in a roundtable discussion for teachers on the role of evolution in biology education.

Talks sponsored by the Midland Michigan Chapter on a recent dinosaur dig in Wyoming and on the Shroud of Turin drew standing-room-only crowds and got front page headlines in the Saginaw News.

A forum on technology transfer sponsored by the University of Michigan Chapter gave faculty an opportunity to express their concerns about a proposal that the university adopt technology transfer as a fourth mission, along with education, research and service.

Last spring, the University of Washington Chapter co-sponsored an Environmental Ethics Seminar that focused on "sacred ecology," environmental ethics in contemporary cultures beyond English-speaking countries and the relationship of biophilia to environmental ethics.

About 300 attended a chemistry and fire-eating demonstration co-sponsored by the Omaha Chapter at Creighton University in celebration of National Chemistry Week. The event was held in conjunction with a regional meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Whitman College-Walla Walla College Chapter started a science book club last year and also developed an e-mail distribution list to which anyone interested can subscribe. Notices were sent out to area doctors, teachers, friends and the entire Whitman College faculty, which resulted in a good cross-section of people interested in science.

The secretary general of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was among the speakers for a symposium on the current state of science and technology in Hungary sponsored by the Hungarian Chapter. The chapter also co-sponsored a conference on undergraduate education.

Fields trips to a high altitude experimental agricultural station and to the Zimmerberg Tunnel near Zürich were among activities during the year for the Swiss Chapter. The tunnel is part of a mammoth railroad engineering project currently underway to facilitate north-south transportation under the Alps, without increasing traffic in the fragile high mountain valleys.

Back to top | Copyright ©2013. All Rights Reserved.