The NUS Sigma Pi Sigma Chapter

Left: A/Prof. Phil Chan (right) was the event director of the Venus Transit @ NUS 2012, and Prof. Roy Patrick Kerr (left) was specially invited to grace the event.
Centre: Prof Feng Yuan Ping (left) presented the Sigma Pi Sigma plaque to Mr. Chong Yau Loong, a representative of the NUS Physics Society.
Right: A group photo of some of the first Sigma Pi Sigma inductees. Mr John Soo and Miss Lim Jia Jia (middle row, second and third from the right) were the president and vice president of the Physics Society, respectively. Dr Cindy Ng (top row, first from the left) is the staff advisor of NUS Physics Society.

It was a historic occasion on November 1, 2011 when NUS Physics Department established two new chapters, one for the Society of Physics Students (SPS) under the American Institute of Physics’ (AIP), and one for the Sigma Pi Sigma (ΣΠΣ) Honor Society. We are probably the first university is this part of Asia to have received the accolade and be inducted into the Sigma Pi Sigma fraternity.

The chapter advisor for SPS is Dr Cindy Ng. Dr Ng is the staff advisor of the NUS Physics Society. In every academic year, there are about 250 students studying the physics major programs; the Physics Society is a student society run by an executive committee consisting of 15 members, and most members are the physics students. The society organizes activities like the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, staff and student games, and many other fun and food oriented activities to help promoting staff and student interactions within the Physics Department.

The NUS Sigma Pi Sigma chapter advisor is A/Prof Phil Chan. A/Prof Chan was inducted into the membership in 1992 and hence became the first Sigma Pi Sigma member at NUS.

The first NUS Sigma Pi Sigma reception ceremony was held on June 6, 2012, in conjunction with the Faculty of Science’s Venus Transit @ NUS 2012 event. The Venus Transit event generated a buzz of media and television activities. Thousands of people turned up for the 2-day event and hundreds attended the public lecture of renowned Distinguished Professor Roy Patrick Kerr from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Prof Kerr is famous for discovering the Kerr vacuum.

The Sigma Pi Sigma reception ceremony was graced by Prof Kerr. During the ceremony the Physics Department Head, Prof Feng Yuan Ping, was invited to present the Sigma Pi Sigma plaque to the Physics Society. A total of 25 inductees were received into the Sigma Pi Sigma membership at this ceremony.

Sigma Pi Sigma Membership
The chapter receives into membership undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, and a few others in closely related fields. Students elected to membership must attain high standards of general scholarship and outstanding achievement in physics.

Undergraduate candidates must meet a minimum standard used by the chapter. Graduate students and faculty members may be elected at any time. Students who are not physics majors can be elected, provided that they meet the standards and have demonstrated an interest in physics. Physicists in industry and government laboratories, as well as secondary school physics teachers, can be elected on the basis of their professional record.

For more information about the membership, please contact Dr Cindy Ng (phynsc@nus.edu.sg)