Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva, an Associate Professor of polymer chemistry and nanomaterials in the Department of Chemistry, has been elected president of the UAB Sigma Xi chapter. Founded in 1957, the chapter holds a series of free monthly seminars at which scientists and engineers share their research and scholarship.

Eugenia Kharlampieva (Photo by Jared Bash)Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is the international honor society of science and engineering. One of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world, Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering, and has a distinguished history of service to science and society. Scientists and engineers, whose research spans science and technology disciplines, comprise the membership of the Society. 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 Sigma Xi members, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Linus Pauling, Francis Crick and James Watson.

In addition to publishing the award-winning “American Scientist” a bimonthly science and technology magazine, the national Sigma Xi organization provides annual grants to promising young researchers. It also sponsors a variety of programs supporting ethics in research, science and engineering education, the public understanding of science, international research cooperation and the overall health of the research enterprise.

Sigma Xi exerts its greatest influence through the programs and activities of its more than 500 chapters. Truly a grass-roots organization, Sigma Xi boasts an array of chapter activities that have noticeable impact not only at the local level, but also at the national and international levels. The interdisciplinary nature of Sigma Xi chapters allows members to interact with colleagues and address a range of issues that bridge the scientific disciplines.

Dr. Kharlampieva, a 2014 winner of an NSF CAREER Award , will lead the UAB chapter along with Margaret Amsler, M.S., of the Department of Biology (treasurer), Dr. Veronika Kozlovskaya of the Department of Chemistry (vice president), and retired UAB administrator James Lowery (secretary).