January 09, 2018
Media Contact
Jamie L. Vernon, PhD
Executive Director and CEO
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
jvernon@sigmaxi.org or 1-800-243-6534 ext. 223
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—Two organizations, each with a history of supporting the scientific enterprise for more than 100 years, are building a partnership to promote, protect, and improve all aspects of science and engineering.
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) agreed today to explore ways to enrich opportunities for their members such as promoting membership in each other’s organizations, opening each other’s programs to participation by both sets of members, collaborating on publishing opportunities between AAAS’s Science family of journals and Sigma Xi’s magazine American Scientist, and expand joint actions on policy issues relating to ethics, education, perception of science and evidence-based decision-making, and investment in science.
The two organizations have a history of working together on critical legislative issues. The most recent collaborations were to send letters to Congress in support of keeping graduate education tax provisions and urging presidential administrations to adopt policies based on the most reliable scientific evidence. Sigma Xi is an affiliate organization of AAAS and a member of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition.
Sigma Xi is the largest international research honor society of science and engineering. Members are elected to the Society based on their research potential or achievements. The Society is dedicated to improving the human condition through research excellence, connecting science and society, and fostering the next generation of researchers. Sigma Xi chapters around the world provide a supportive environment for researchers from different study areas to come together.
AAAS seeks to advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people. It is the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society, with members in countries around the globe. Membership is open to anyone who supports using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve the world’s challenges.
“Sigma Xi and AAAS have been working toward similar goals, mainly to strengthen the research community and to help the public benefit from science and engineering,” said Jamie L. Vernon, Sigma Xi executive director and CEO. “We can do more by sharing our resources, bringing our members together, and making science more relevant and accessible for all.”
Photo: Sigma Xi Chief Executive Officer Jamie L. Vernon, on left, and AAAS Chief Executive Officer Rush D. Holt signed an agreement to build on a partnership between the two organizations on January 9, 2018. The signing took place at the AAAS office in Washington, DC. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Waldron/AAAS.)