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
Photo: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is moving its international headquarters to the Cape Fear Building within Research Triangle Park, N.C
UPDATE, July 7, 2015: Sigma Xi has moved into the Cape Fear Building and its website, www.sigmaxi.org, is fully functional.
Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is moving its international headquarters within Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The Society’s staff, as well as the staff of its award-winning magazine American Scientist and journal for pre-college research Chronicle of The New Researcher, are moving next door from their current building. As of July 3, the Society will be located at 3200 Chapel Hill Nelson Highway, Suite 300, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The office is in the Cape Fear Building within RTP’s Progress Center.
During the move, Sigma Xi members will temporarily be unable to login to the Society’s website at www.sigmaxi.org, post to its online communities, or use the member directory. These functions are expected to be down from July 2 at noon to July 3 at 5 p.m. Eastern. Other areas of the website will remain functional during this time.
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is the international honor society of science and engineering. Formed in 1886, Sigma Xi members are elected to the Society to recognize their achievements. The Society promotes ethical research, companionship among researchers, and the public understanding of science. Sigma Xi chapters can be found at colleges and universities, government laboratories, and industry research centers around the world. More than 200 Nobel Prize winners have been members. The Society has been located in Research Triangle Park for 25 years.
Sigma Xi has been in its current building since 2003. Sigma Xi sold the building in March to Research Triangle High School and a lease agreement allowed the staff to remain there while the new office space was being prepared.
The Sigma Xi staff with Immediate Past President George Atkinson, fourth from left, at the front door of the Cape Fear Building.
During the move, Sigma Xi donated 553 books about science, engineering, technology, and math from American Scientist's libraries to the North Carolina State University Libraries. Approximately 6,000 copies of scientific journals, 300 copies of a book collection of American Scientist articles on ecology, and several hundred back issues of American Scientist were donated to Kestrel Heights School, a public charter K–12 school in Durham, North Carolina. Kestrel Heights School and The Scrap Exchange, a creative reuse art center in Durham, also received extra office supplies and equipment.
Sigma Xi's Board of Directors decided to sell the building because it was no longer completely compatible with the needs of the Society. The new building will allow the Society to focus more if its financial resources on the needs of members.
“All members should feel proud of the efforts being made by many to chart a new course for the Society in times of rapidly changing expectations,” said George Atkinson, Sigma Xi's immediate past president who led efforts of the move as Sigma Xi's president. His one-year president’s term ended June 30.
Mark Peeples, who begins his term as Sigma Xi president today, visited the new headquarters less than two weeks before move-in day.
“The space is open and inviting, the kind of setup that I feel certain will encourage staff interactions and problem solving. I am very pleased with our new home,” said Peeples.