Sigma Pi Sigma membership recognizes commitment to excellence in the study, propagation, and fellowship of physics. Most members are received as undergraduates on the basis of their chapter’s standards for academic success and character. Graduate students are received by a chapter on the basis of making satisfactory progress toward an advanced degree, and professional physicists are received by a chapter on the basis of their professional record. Physicists who have attained noteworthy distinction on the national or international level in physics or a closely allied field may be designated for the special distinction of Honorary Membership, which may only be awarded upon election by the National Council of SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma.

At the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress in Silicon Valley, our society welcomed a new class of distinguished members. Five noteworthy physicists were presented with an Honorary Membership. The presentations were made by Sigma Pi Sigma leadership and student representatives of the SPS National Council. We are pleased to welcome our newest members into the community of Sigma Pi Sigma.

Earl Blodgett
for his tireless leadership of SPS, including two terms as president of SPS and eight years as SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma’s historian, for his two decades of advising future physics teachers, and for his dedication to teaching physics to the next generation of physicists by constantly improving the way introductory classes are taught, as a professor at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls. Presented by Willie Rockward, Sigma Pi Sigma President

Patrick Brady
for his pathbreaking work with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). To learn more, see Radiations, Fall 2016 issue.
Presented by: Tracy Paltoo – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 2, Adelphi University and Matthew Smith – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 16, New Mexico State University

Eric Cornell
for synthesis of the first Bose-Einstein condensate. For more, see The SPS Observer, Fall 2016 issue.
Presented by: Lisa McDonald – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 11, Coe College and Bryant Ward – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 15, Utah State University

Persis Drell
for her leadership at SLAC and Stanford’s School of Engineering. See The SPS Observer, Fall 2016 issue.
Presented by: Nikos Dokmetzoglou – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 5, Davidson College and Hannah Hamilton – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 13, Abilene Christian University

Neil Turok
for making it possible for the best and brightest Africans to have a future in physics and math in Africa. To learn more, see Radiations, Fall 2016 issue.
Presented by: Brooke Carter – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 8, University of Tennessee - Knoxville and Sally Dagher – Associate Zone Councilor Zone 7, Kettering University