Sigma Xi Orange County Chapter

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The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - NACA - celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. NACA was the predecessor of NASA.

The National Sigma Xi celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2011.

American Scientist, the flagship publication of Sigma Xi, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012.

Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, has had a distinguished history of service to science and society for over a century. Its primary publication, The American Scientist, is generally recognized as one of the top scientific journals for nonspecialists.

Sigma Xi was established at Cornell University in 1886 as a university-based scientific research honorary organization to recognize significant contributions to original scientific research. The Scientific Research Society of America (RESA), founded in 1947, was an industrial and government research-laboratory-based parallel organization. In 1974 the two organizations united to form Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society of North America. The “of North America” was dropped from the name as the organization spread into Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The combined organization today is composed of some 318 chapters found at the leading research laboratories worldwide comprising over 200,000 scientists and engineers, including over 200 Nobel laureates, hundreds of members of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, the National Institute of Medicine, the National Research Council and National Science and Technology medalists.

An individual who has shown noteworthy achievement as an original investigator in a field of pure or applied science is eligible for election to Full Membership. This noteworthy achievement must be evidenced by publication as the primary author (defined in the manner appropriate to the discipline) on at least two different articles published in a refereed journal, or patents in the field, or refereed monographs. Doctoral dissertations and theses alone are not considered sufficient for demonstration of this achievement and must be accompanied by at least two other publications as described above. Associate Membership is offered to those students and rising science professionals who have shown exceptional promise in their scientific research.

Who We Are

The Orange County Chapter of Sigma Xi was originally chartered by UCLA’s Founding Dean of Engineering, Dr. Llewellyn M. K. Boelter, as the Autonetics Branch of the Scientific Research Society of America (RESA) on April 2, 1965 in Anaheim, CA, at the Research, Engineering and Reliability Division of Autonetics, the electronics arm of the North American Aviation, Inc.

After the 1974 Sigma Xi/RESA merger, it became the Autonetics Sigma Xi Club which combined on November 5, 1990, with the California State University Club to form the Orange County Sigma Xi Club. On February 18, 1992, it was promoted to full Chapter status.

Quarterly dinner/lecture meetings were inaugurated in November, 1965, but were suspended for a decade after November, 1978. Since November, 1988, the Chapter has been holding bimonthly dinner/lecture meetings on the third Tuesdays of the odd-numbered months.

Meeting Information

Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the odd-numbered months, at the DoubleTree Club by Hilton Hotel Orange County Airport
7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, California

The usual schedule is:
6:30 - networking, conversation, no-host bar.
7:00 - dinner. The menu will be on the "Next Meeting" announcement page.
8:00 - the speaker's presentation, followed by Q&A, usually lasting till about 9:30

Contact Information

Founding and current President:

Secretary/Treasurer:

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