Hammarskjold Student Scientist Receives Prestigious Award
Nov 16, 2016
Emily Cross of Hammarskjold High School, an Associate Member of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, has won the 2016 Sigma Xi High School Geoscience Medal for her research on softening ironstone for paleontological research and mining purposes. The Grade 11 student received the award for her research “Geochemical Extraction of Ceratopsian Remains and Opal from Ironstone” at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.
Through her work, Emily has demonstrated research and communication skills that meet or exceed the high standards of Sigma Xi, and is representative of the society’s vision for supporting innovative research, demonstrating scientific integrity, and fostering public understanding of science.
Sigma Xi is the pre-eminent global scientific honour society, and counts over 200 Nobel Laureates as current and past members, including such well known figures as Albert Einstein, James Watson and Enrico Fermi.
Each year, Sigma Xi awards one medal per scientific discipline to a high school, undergraduate and graduate student. Select students are invited to present their research to distinguished Sigma Xi scientists, who judge the work and the presentations against the highest standards of academic rigour and presentation skill. Winners in each category represent the best projects in their respective fields for each year.
About Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society (ΣΞ) is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential. Despite the name, Sigma Xi is neither a fraternity nor a sorority, and today is open to all qualified individuals who are interested in science and engineering.
Today the Society comprises nearly 100,000 scientists and engineers who were elected to membership based on their research achievements and potential. More than 500 Sigma Xi chapters in North America and around the world provide a supportive environment for interdisciplinary research at colleges and universities, industry research centers, and government laboratories. In addition to publishing the award-winning American Scientist magazine, Sigma Xi provides grants annually to promising young researchers and 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.
More than 200 winners of the Nobel Prize have been Sigma Xi members, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Linus Pauling, Francis Crick and James Watson.
