Sigma Xi at the University of Florida
In 2024, the Sigma Xi University of Florida Chapter celebrates 138 years of service as the honor society of research scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi is an international, multidisciplinary research society whose programs and activities promote the health of the scientific enterprise and honor scientific achievement. There are nearly 60,000 Sigma Xi members in more than 100 countries around the world. Sigma Xi chapters, more than 500 in all, can be found at colleges and universities, industrial research centers and government laboratories. The Society endeavors to encourage support of original work across the spectrum of science and technology and to promote an appreciation within society at large for the role research has played in human progress.
Membership in Sigma Xi is by invitation. Those who have shown potential as researchers are invited to join as associate members. Full membership is conferred upon those who have demonstrated noteworthy achievements in research. Each year the Society initiates nearly 5,000 new members. Over the course of the Society’s distinguished history, more than 200 members have won the Nobel Prize and many more have earned election to the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.
The University of Florida chapter is one of the largest in the nation, with approximately 200 active members. The UF Chapter was formed in 1937 with Dr. Perry A. Foote, Sr. taking on the role of President. John J. Tigert was the President of the University of Florida at this time and began his term in 1928 amid one of the worst economic crises experienced in America. Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for a second term by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes as President of the United States in 1937.