Welcome to the Georgia Southern University
Chapter of
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society was founded in 1886. Today
this nonprofit membership society has over 80,000 scientists and engineers
who were elected to the Society because of their research achievements or
potential. Sigma Xi has more than 500 chapters at universities and colleges,
government laboratories and industry research centers. In addition to publishing
American Scientist, Sigma Xi awards grants annually to promising
young researchers, holds forums on critical issues at the intersection of
science and society and sponsors a variety of programs supporting honor
in science and engineering, science education, science policy and the public
understanding of science. (The above paragraph is taken from
the Sigma Xi homepage). For more information on Sigma Xi, please
go to the International Homepage.
Recently, our chapter was just honored with one of the first Sigma Xi Chapter
Program Awards (see below)
How can YOU become of member of Sigma Xi (and become involved with your
local chapter here at GSU) -- speak with one of the officers
of GSU's Chapter and read about the membership
procedures. To JOIN the GSU Chapter of Sigma Xi, you can use the online
form. We hope to have the fee structure available online soon. For questions
about fees, please contact Secretary/Treasurer Dr.
Alan Harvey in the Biology Department at GSU. See below for events!
CURRENT EVENTS 2004
Sigma Xi Meeting
Monday, February 16, 2004 dinner at 6:00 PM at Archibald's Restaurant
Presentation by
Dr. Bruce A. Schulte
Department of Biology
"Elephant Communication and Conservation"
Sigma Xi Meeting
Monday, September 29 dinner at 6:00 PM at RJ's Steakhouse
Presentation by Dr. Kurt Wiegel of the
Department of Chemistry on his recent research on polymers and their
applications to industry
PAST EVENTS 2002-03
Spring Banquet, April 28, 2003 at Archibald's Restaurant
Sigma Xi Meeting
Monday, March 24, 2003
Dinner: Dingus MaGee's at 5:30
with speaker to follow
Dr. Bill Irby, Department of Biology
"Mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus."
Sigma Xi Meeting
Monday, Nov 18, 2002
Dinner and speaker at Pasha's Restaurant
Dinner at 6 pm, followed by
"Hydrogeology of Southeast Georgia"
Dr. Jim Reichard, Geology & Geography
(at approximately 6:30)
The Fall Social was a success despite the rain!
Fall Social 2002
A fun time to get together and socialize, meet new people, and
enjoy food and beverage.
Come and get acquainted with other Georgia Southern Scientists
and their families!
Cookout at the Fausetts'
215 Azalea Drive
Monday, Oct. 28, 5:30 pm
Sigma Xi will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, (veggie burgers
if desired), buns, condiments, plates, etc.
Please bring a side dish to share and your family.
Norm Schmidt (our new VP) will man the grill.
RSVP to
Laurie Fausett at 681-0251 or LFausett@GeorgiaSouthern.edu
Spring 2002 in Review
Georgia Southern Sigma Xi Chapter
- End of Year Banquet, April 25: Our end of year banquet was held
at Dingus Magee's. We awarded certificates and a small monetary award to
each of our student research competition
winners. Our undergraduate winner was Matt Turner and our graduate winner
was April Murphy. In addition, Tiffany Hodges and Brad Wells joined Sigma
Xi as student members. We are always in need of new members so please consider
joining or updating your membership by paying your current dues. Finally,
Laurie Fausett will become our new President for 2002-2003 -- we wish Laurie
well. We are still in need of a Vice-President and possibly a new Secretary/Treasurer
if Alan Harvey decides to step down. We will have an election at the start
of the fall semester, perhaps in conjunction with the COST meeting.
- Earth Day 2002: On April 23rd, we had a
very successful Earth Day forum in collaboration with SAGE
and the Georgia Southern Environmental Network (GSEN)
with support from numerous entities and individuals at Georgia Southern
University. Kurt Teichert from Brown University gave a morning interactive
seminar on "The National Greening of College
Campuses" and led an afternoon workshop on "The Tangible Benefits of Greening"
for our program titled "Economics and the Environment: The Tangible
Benefits of Greening."See
this link for more information.
- Student Research Competition: We had a very successful student research competition in February
2002. All entrants gave very nice talks and wrote interesting abstracts,
making the judging very difficult. See this
link for more information.
Meeting on February 8 @ 11 am
Agenda Items
- The Program Award given to GSU Chapter at fall National
Meeting was shown to all in attendance.
- Alan Harvey gave the secretary/treasurer's report: membership
is up but there are numerous inactive (unpaid) members. Our budget operates
largely on receiving a percentage of the membership dues from the National
Chapter based upon on our paid local members. We need to attract more new
members and inspire inactive members to become current! We discussed having
a booth at the COST annual meeting as well as an End of Year Banquet
that could serve as a fund raiser as well.
- The Student Research Competition will be held February
28 at 7 pm. Abstracts are due on February 22 to Dr. Schulte. See the web
form. WE WILL NEED JUDGES!
- The Earth Day event co-sponsored with SAGE and GSEN is
moving forward. We are bringing in a speaker and organizing a workshop
for the event.
- Mark Edwards (as part of the Physics Department Seminar
Series) has invited Nobel Prize winner Dr. Bill Phillips to give a a public
lecture March 1 at 7 pm (see
link for more information). Sigma Xi will help with advertising for
this event.
- Laurie Fausett (v-p) gave a summary of the National Meeting.
- Our next meeting will be at the end of March. We will
need to run elections for Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer (and
make a decision to keep these offices one or split into two as National
would prefer). We will discuss the creation of an executive board consisting
of past two presidents, one other officer and 2 elected members (proposed
composition) to assist with chapter organization and activities
- Please encourage students to participate in the Student
Research Competition.
Fall 2001 Activities
Our NEW Vice-President, Laurene (Laurie) Fausett, was elected
by unanimous vote at our meeting on Wednesday October 24, 2001. Thanks to
all those who attended.
Laurie attended the National Meeting in Raleigh, NC and accept
the award for our chapter program (spring 2002, see
below).
Laurie will provide us with a synopsis of the meeting to be
published on this website in the spring semester.
We had a fall meeting of all current and past active members
and of course any interested NEW members on:
October 24 at 4 pm in Biology 2215. Thanks
for Attending!
Issues of Concern:
The GSU Chapter needs to achieve certain goals to remain
in Good Standing:
1) We need a Vice-President for 2001-2002 (Accomplished)
and ideally we should have the Secretary and Treasurer be separate
officers
2) We need someone to attend the National
Meeting (Accomplished)
November 9-11, 2001, Raleigh, North Carolina
3) We need to increase our membership base both by receiving fees
from
unpaid, past members and by gaining new members (On program
for spring 2002 meeting)
Chapter Program Award
The National Organization of SIGMA XI
has awarded the GSU Chapter one of the first Sigma Xi Chapter Program Awards
for outstanding chapter program during the year ending June 30, 2001.
"Certificates are awarded for exceptional and innovative
chapter programs, particularly those that address the four major issues
at the foundation of the Society's mission: honor in science and engineering,
science education, science policy and the public understanding of science.
Your chapter is being honored for its 'Science and Media Forum' that brought
together researchers and journalists to discuss strategies for better informing
the public about scientific research."
The notification letter concludes with
"We look forward to watching your programs continue to
succeed and hope that your accomplishments will help your chapter to grow
and to flourish."
We received notice of this award on October
22 via a letter dated October 19, 2001.
GSU Chapter Events 2000-2001
The Sigma Xi Student Research Competition
There were separate competitions for Graduate and Undergraduate
students
Abstracts were submitted by April 20, 2001
Talks were held on the evening of April 25, 2001 in Biology
2217 starting at 7:00 pm
Science and the Media: Relaying Research to Reporters and the
Public
Date & Time: Thursday, March 1 at 3:00 p.m.
Location: Georgia Southern Museum (in the Rosenwald Building
on Sweetheart Circle)
For a synopsis of this event, click
here
Chromium: The Key to Diabetes
by
Dr. Michele Davis
Chemistry Department, GSU
Friday, October 27, 2000 @ 3:30 pm GSU Museum
For the years 2003-2004, the Georgia Southern
University Officers of Sigma Xi are
President: Norman Schmidt, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Vice-President: Michele Davis, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Secretary / Treasurer: Alan Harvey, Associate Professor of Biology
For the years 2002-2003, the Georgia Southern University Officers of
Sigma Xi are
President: Laurene (Laurie) Fausett, Assistant Professor Math &
Computer Science
Vice-President: Norman Schmidt, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Secretary / Treasurer: Alan Harvey, Associate Professor of Biology
For the years 2001-2002, the Georgia Southern University Officers of
Sigma Xi were
President: Bruce Schulte, Assistant Professor of Biology
Vice-President: Laurene (Laurie) Fausett, Assistant Professor Math &
Computer Science
Secretary / Treasurer: Alan Harvey, Assistant Professor of Biology
For the years 2000-2001, the Georgia Southern University Officers of
Sigma Xi were
President: Michael Hurst, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Vice-President: Bruce Schulte, Assistant Professor of Biology
Secretary / Treasurer: Alan Harvey, Assistant Professor of Biology
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Last Updated on Friday, March 26, 2004 by B. Schulte.
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