Two seniors in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics have reactivated the Institute's chapter of Sigma Gamma Tau, the national academic honors society for students of aeronautics and astronautics. Anna Mracek and Timothee de Mierry worked with Professor Paul Lagace to revive the MIT chapter of the 51-year-old honor society, which lapsed in the late 1990s.
Students selected for membership must place near the top of their class and must be likely to make significant advances in their profession.
"As with any honors society, Sigma Gamma Tau membership does inspire respect from people in the field. As the chapter continues, the opportunities for leadership and interaction with the faculty will definitely be an asset to members," said Mracek, president of the chapter. "Additionally, we are working to build a bridge between the undergraduate and graduate communities to help seniors with the graduate application process."
The SGT has already participated in two community service projects in partnership with other campus groups--as science advisors and support staff at the Science Expo, and as teachers and mentors for the Mars Society's Boy Scout Space Exploration Day, according to Mracek, who will remain at MIT as a graduate student next year.
MIT members are seniors Douglas Allaire, Julie Arnold, David Broniatowski (graduate liaison officer), Timothee de Mierry, Martin Jonikas, Anna Mracek (president) and Douglas Quattrochi; and juniors Omar Bashir, Brett Bethke (treasurer), Thomas Coffee, Shuonan Dong, Finale Doshi, Nicholas Hoff, Elizabeth Jordan (vice president), JoHanna Przybylowski, Emily Schwartz, and Regina Sullivan (secretary).
Sigma Gamma Tau was founded at Purdue University in 1953; today it has 50 collegiate chapters and nearly 15,000 members.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 2, 2004 (download PDF).
