Sigma Pi Sigma

Sigma Pi Sigma
What Membership in Sigma Pi Sigma Means
Honor
Sigma Pi Sigma is the official honor society of the physics profession. Through election to Sigma Pi Sigma, distinctive achievement and high scholarship in physics is recognized and celebrated.
Encouragement
By honoring high achievement in physics and upholding high standards for election into Sigma Pi Sigma, the Society provides an incentive for all physics students to rise to excellence. The Society also encourages physics interest and science literacy in the general public.
Service
With the recognition of accomplishment comes a responsibility to service. As persons who earned our Sigma Pi Sigma insignia pins by midnight oil, we appreciate the struggles of fellow students and colleagues who are facing similar challenges. When our experience and resources are placed at their service, then Sigma Pi Sigma touches more lives than may be counted by the number of its members. Because we respect the struggle for excellence, we support the generations of students that follow us.
Fellowship
Sigma Pi Sigma members cut across generational lines. The first members were inducted in 1921. New members are added every year. This represents many generations of experience and wisdom that can be brought to bear on matters of common interest to all members.
Sigma Pi Sigma members cut across professional lines. Besides physicists, many members of other professions also enrich our ranks, uniting a diverse group of people who have shared in the culture and traditions of physics, and have demonstrated that they could excel in it.
With this common thread of a shared background in physics running through so rich a diversity of generations and professions, and with the publications and meetings of the Society available for communication instruments, Sigma Pi Sigma nurtures a spirit of professional community among its members, and encourages them to offer their collective wisdom and perspectives in the service of society.
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Sigma Pi Sigma was established at USU in the 1950s. No new inductions took place from 1989 until 2006. Since then 66 new members have been inducted bringing to 182 the total of USU Sigma Pi Sigma members. At USU election to membership requires a 3.5 GPA in all classes, having taken physics classes beyond the introductory courses, and contributions to the Department’s programs and activities.
Lance Petersen, President
Robert Call, Vice President