Blog: Honor Society Alumni

​Famous US Honor Society Alumni

Honor societies have existed in the United States ever since it gained Independence. They have strived to invite the best and the brightest academically gifted students in order to further their goals and learn from their intelligence. There are many memorials dedicated to their achievements.

One such place is the Honor Society Museum which houses nearly 200 years of rich history of contributions to science and art by the best and brightest in the US. Visit this website to find out more about the Honor Society Museum

Famous Phi Beta Kappa Members
Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest honor society currently running in the United States. It was formed on the campus of William and Mary College and came into being on 5th December 1776. It places great emphasis in contributing to the liberal arts and sciences.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was one of the most brilliant astronomers of the twentieth century. She is known for her great contributions to the field by discovering the relationship between the time period of pulsating stars which vary in brightness as well as their luminosity. This allowed her to determine the distance between measurable stars and thus gave a way to astronomers to find the distance between two random points in the night sky.

This discovery provided the first standard candle, a yardstick with which you could measure distances to galaxies far away from our own.

However, Henrietta Swan Leavitt was not recognized for her contributions during her lifetime and died without any formal recognition. It is, however, important to note that Edwin Hubble, the inventor of the Hubble telescope thanked her for her contributions which he employed in order to find out that the universe was expanding.
She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1924. However, it was established that she had died three years before due to cancer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American writer and poet who was said to be the leader of the transcendentalism is the 19th century. He’s considered to be one of the great contributors to the American Romantic Movement and his works have had great bearings on the poets and writers which followed him.

Bill Clinton
The 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton is considered to be one of the most popular presidents of the modern era, and has been credited with introducing sweeping changes into American politics including implementing a Centrist stance on Democratic policies.

Clinton has been the man behind many treaties that have affected the growth of American industry and families including the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the State Children’s Health Insurance program.

He also holds the distinction of the second President after Andrew Johnson to be impeached. During the last three years of his presidency, the budget surplus was reported to be doubled. He also participated in the Camp David Summit in the year 2000 to better Israeli Palestinian Relations.

Famous Sigma Xi Members
Sigma Xi is the third oldest honor society founded in the US and places significant emphasis on research work and research potential on its members. It is an international society and hence has members all over the globe. Here are some of the most illustrious members.

Albert Einstein
Einstein is a name that needs no introduction. He is considered to be the greatest scientist of the 20th century and his name has become synonymous with genius. His outstanding contributions to physics and science in general have led to him being called one of the greatest minds that have ever been born.

His two main contributions have been considered the special and general theories of relativity. The two theories deal with the speed of light, gravity, and space as being intertwined and having a large bearing on how the universe works. The theories postulate that space and time are intertwined like a fabric into space-time which can be warped and twisted by gravity, and hence can allow different bodies to experience time and space differently depending on their point of reference.

Einstein’s other work includes an explanation for the Photoelectric Effect, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was one of the foremost physicists of the 20th century. He was considered the world’s first architect of the nuclear age. Indeed, he built the first nuclear reactor in the world and was one of the very few physicists to have a foot in both camps, that of theoretical and experimental physics.

Fermi went on to hold several patents through his experiments in the use of nuclear power and was awarded Physics Nobel Prize in 1938 for his contributions to induce radioactivity through neutron bombardment. This process is known as nuclear fission and is considered the only viable form of generating electricity through nuclear power at this moment.

Enrico Fermi also did considerable work in the fields of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which were both major fields in his day dealing with deep questions that all pointed to the inner workings of the Universe.

He is also credited with coming with the particle called the neutrino. The very small massive particle is now considered to be one of the most significant pieces of the standard model of physics.

Francis Crick and James Watson
Francis Crick and James Watson are considered legends within the medical community. They co-authored a paper which proposed the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Both of them were hence awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the year 1962.

Their achievements in biology allowed scientists to figure out the structure of DNA and probe within it to find out more about how life develops and what secrets DNA holds within its structure.

They laid the basis for the information transfer within living material that is known as reproduction of cells. Through their research the world has been able to find out more about genetic engineering, mutation, evolution, as well as molecular engineering.

Honor Societies in the US and around the world have inducted into their ranks remarkable people who have changed the world with their contributions.

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