For over 15 years, the EMS Energy Institute has housed the Penn State Chapter of the national honor society, Phi Kappa Phi. Phi Kappa Phi is an undergraduate honor society open to students in all majors across all Penn State campuses. It recognizes excellence across all academic branches. The chapter elects members from only the top 7.5 percent of the junior class and top 10 percent of the graduating class. Each year, staff at the EMS Energy Institute work to notify students and organize a banquet to recognize those students.
Sharon Falcone Miller, senior research associate at the Institute and associate professor in Energy and Mineral Engineering, is the current president, a position that she has held since 2006. Prior to Miller, Peter Luckie, Professor Emeritus in Energy and Mineral Engineering, served as chapter president for 10 years.
This year the chapter held its induction ceremony on March 24. The chapter initiated 313 new members, of which 80 were able to attend the ceremony. Students at the ceremony were addressed by guest speaker Edgar Farmer, Professor Emeritus of Higher Education, College of Education, Penn State.
Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest of all discipline honor societies at Penn State, established in 1900. In 1900, the presidents of the University of Maine, the Pennsylvania State College (now The Pennsylvania State University), and the University of Tennessee pledged their support, and the society thus became national, with three chapters. Currently there are over 300 chapters of Phi Kappa Phi. The society draws its name from the classical Greek words for the first three letters of its motto: philosophia krateito photon, “let the love of learning rule humanity.”
In addition to the annual ceremony, the Penn State Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi also sponsors awards for undergraduate students. The Peter T. Luckie Award, started in 2008 to honor Peter Luckie, is presented to top juniors at the Undergraduate Research Exhibition. This year, Jordanna Lemba received the award for excellence in research in behavioral and social science, and Breecher Hartley Watson received the award for excellence in research in engineering and physical science. These students were joined by 170 entries from undergraduate students from all Penn State campuses.
In December, Phi Kappa Phi sponsored the Freshman Award as part of the College of Earth and Mineral Science’s first undergraduate exhibition. Jared Fisher, Mohammed AlSaud, Mohammed Alnahas and Sven Alagic received the award for their Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor Vessel Head.
For more information on the Penn State Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, visit the website at www.energy.psu.edu/pkp.