Phi Lambda Upsilon National Honorary Chemical Society

Founded in 1899 at the Noyes Laboratory

Noyes Laboratory

Noyes Laboratory is a chemistry laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that was established in 1902. When it was expanded in 1916 it housed the largest chemistry department in the United States. In 1939 the building was dedicated in honor of the influential U of I chemist...

 of the University of Illinois. Phi Lambda Upsilon was the first honor society

Honor society

In the United States, an honor society is a rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers. Numerous societies recognize various fields and circumstances. The Order of the Arrow, for example, is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America...

 dedicated to scholarship in a single discipline, chemistry.

Objectives

The aims and purposes of the Society are summarized in its constitution – the promotion of high scholarship and original investigation in all branches of pure and applied chemistry. The founders envisioned a society dedicated to these objectives which would serve the field of chemistry in much the same manner as Phi Beta Kappa does the humanities; Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society 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...

, scientific research; and Tau Beta Pi

Tau Beta Pi

The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...

, engineering. Throughout its history, Phi Lambda Upsilon has been consistently devoted to its objectives as an Honor Society.

History

Phi Lambda Upsilon was founded as an honorary chemical society in March 1899, at the University of Illinois. This was the first honor society dedicated to a single scientific discipline. A survey of our history reveals three distinct periods. Founding, growth and entrenchment of Alpha Chapter at the University of Illinois comprise the first period. The second period began in 1906 when Beta Chapter was established at the University of Wisconsin. Five more chapters were chartered prior to 29 June 1911, the date of the convention at Indianapolis at which the national society was organized and the second period reached its culmination. From 1911 to date, the Society has effected a gradual rise in the standards for membership. This period has also been characterized by the development of programs of activity within the chapters consistent with the honorary character of the Society. In the span of ninety-five years, Phi Lambda Upsilon has grown into an organization comprising sixty-seven chapters and more than 55,000 members.

Membership

Members are elected by the Chapters or At-Large on the basis of their academic achievement and promise. Membership includes exceptional students of pure and applied chemistry selected from the junior, senior, or graduate classes, and also from well qualified members of faculties, staffs, as well as from selected post-doctoral students engaged in chemical endeavors in affiliation with qualified institutions of higher learning.

Honorary Membership

Honorary membership is the highest honor the Society may bestow upon an individual. Honorary members are scientists of national or international reputation in a field of chemistry and are chosen by a vote of the chapters. Regular membership in the Society in no way precludes later election to honorary membership. This honor has been bestowed upon only two hundred and ten individuals in the ninety-five year history of the Society. The roll of honorary members includes the names of prominent American and foreign chemists, including virtually all American Nobel Laureates in Chemistry.

Triennial Congress

The Executive Committee meets triennially with delegates from local chapters nationwide every 3 years to endlessly discuss the business of PLU and to elect the national officers for the next triennium. National officers are elected from PLU members that are faculty, governmental, or industrial chemists. Voting delegates are graduate or undergraduate PLU members with each chapter being able to cast one vote on each issue raised or national office being elected. Active chapters may send one voting delegate whose travel expenses will be reimbursed, although additional delegates from a given chapter and At-large members are also invited to attend.