July 01, 2015
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jamie L. Vernon or Jasmine Shah, Interim Co-Directors of Operations
jvernon@sigmaxi.org; jshah@sigmaxi.org
Ph: 800-243-6534
Research Triangle Park, N.C.—New leaders are taking the helm of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society today as fiscal year 2016 begins.
The changes include the top office of Sigma Xi president. George H. Atkinson is passing the presidency to Mark E. Peeples. During his president’s term from July 1, 2014–June 30, 2015, Atkinson led a partnership between Sigma Xi and the Institute on Science for Global Policy (ISGP). He founded the ISGP and is its executive director. Sigma Xi and the ISGP co-sponsored three debates so that credible scientific information could be included in discussions that lead to forming public policy. The partnership will also include a workshop later this summer for Sigma Xi chapter leaders who want to be involved with this type of event.
To focus more financial resources on meeting the needs of members, Atkinson also successfully led the sale of the building that was the Sigma Xi headquarters. This was the office space of Sigma Xi’s staff, the staff of its magazine, American Scientist, and the staff of its pre-college research journal, Chronicle of The New Researcher. With the sale complete, their operations will move to the Cape Fear Building, Suite 300, at 3200 Chapel Hill Nelson Highway in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, this week. Atkinson remains on the Sigma Xi Board of Directors as the immediate past president.
Mark E. Peeples brings experience as a Sigma Xi chapter leader to the national president’s role. For the past eight years, he has been a leader for Ohio State University’s chapter, holding positions such as secretary, vice president, and president. He will be the Sigma Xi national president for one year and will remain on the Board of Directors, which he joined last year as president-elect. He is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Ohio State University’s College of Medicine.
“Membership and chapters are my two top priorities as president,” Peeples wrote in his first letter to Sigma Xi members.
Tee Guidotti becomes the Society’s new president-elect today and joins the Sigma Xi Board of Directors. He is returning to full-time consulting in health, safety, environment management and sustainability after a Fulbright award as a visiting research chair at the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy.
The members who were voted in as regional and constituency directors in Sigma Xi’s 2014 elections, as well as the associate directors, begin their three-year terms today. Additionally, that election included three-year positions on the Committee on Nominations. Those terms began on December 9, 2014.
Photos
From top to bottom is Sigma Xi’s fiscal year 2016 Immediate Past President George H. Atkinson, President Mark E. Peeples, and President-Elect Tee Guidotti.