Physics student organization wins national award

This month the University of Maine undergraduate Society of Physics Students (SPS) chapter was named an Outstanding Chapter for 2016-2017.

The SPS Outstanding Chapter Award is the highest level of distinction given to chapters, with less than 10% of chapters honored annually.

The UMaine SPS chapter strives to enable it’s members to become engaged leaders in the community by developing professional skills and elevating those around them. In the 2016-2017 academic year they sent members to the Quadrennial Physics Congress in San Francisco and hosted the SPS Zone One Conference for regional chapters right here in Orono. Additionally, through organizing department events, partnering with the Society of Women Engineers, and engaging with young physics students, the SPS UMaine Chapter has been able to bring the Department of Physics and Astronomy and its students together.

“The greatest success, in my opinion, has been the creation of a community. Not only with the undergraduates, but with the graduates and faculty,” says Samuel Borer, UMaine physics student and outgoing SPS chapter President.

The Society of Physics Students is a professional association explicitly designed for students and their advisers. SPS mission is to help students transform themselves into contributing members of the professional community.

For more information on the UMaine SPS Chapter, contact chapter advisor Thomas Hess.