Society of Physics Students

The Drew Chapter of the Society of Physics Students is part of a national professional student association that provides each student with the opportunity to participate in the wider physics community. Locally, our chapter serves as a link between the faculty and students, and between the classroom and outside experiences. The chapter is an active one, having been selected an “Outstanding Chapter” numerous times in the last ten years by the SPS National Office. The approximately 20 member organization sponsors a variety of activities throughout the year including student and invited talks, field trips, video series, and physics recruitment events. The chapter has also organized regional student meetings for our zone, and often travels to such meetings at other schools. Such meetings are excellent forums for student paper presentations, and meeting other physics students. And finally, the holiday taco party, and fall and spring picnics have become Drew traditions and fill out the busy year and social calendar.

Organized within SPS is the nationally recognized scholastic honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma. The Drew chapter elects members to this society annually on the basis of outstanding academic performance. The formal induction ceremony is carried out at the annual SPS/Physics Department Awards Banquet in April.

Drew’s chapter has hosted a number of regional zone meetings for students from schools in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Students present research results, and there are panel discussions regarding graduate schools, career options, or summer opportunities. At the last such meeting, the keynote speaker was Nobel Prize winner Dr. Russell Hulse who spoke about his discovery of the binary pulsar.

Dr. Robert Fenstermacher, Drew’s SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma advisor, was selected as SPS Faculty Advisor of the Year for 1995. Dr. Fenstermacher received his award from the national SPS Director, Dwight Neuenschwander in a ceremony at Drew on March 6, 1996.