AIP Student Sections

RENEWED efforts are being made to increase the number of active student sections of the American Institute of Physics. Established in the summer of 1950, the student organization plan has made progress steadily but slowly. AIP student sections now exist on the campuses of about six percent of the colleges and universities in the United States that offer the bachelor’s degree in physics. The program was conceived as a measure to support the efforts of physics teachers to encourage and stimulate the interest of their students in the study of physics. It was also intended to offer an avenue for student organizations at accredited institutions to become part of the national organization of physics and thus to establish their members as part of the physics profession. As stated by the Institute when the plan was first announced seven years ago:

“The broad purpose of our student section organization will be much the same as that in other fields of science and technology—where the value of the activity has been proven by experience. We aim to serve and stimulate the student, to enhance his professional pride and responsibility at the start of his career, and to recruit him as a worthy member of our professional societies, i.e., the member societies of the Institute.”