Welcome to the Sigma Xi San Diego Chapter
Connecting curious minds. Advancing discovery. Building San Diego’s community of science, technology, research, and innovation.
The Sigma Xi San Diego Chapter brings together scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, students, innovators, and others who share a passion for discovery and the advancement of knowledge.
As part of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, our Chapter connects San Diego’s extraordinary scientific and intellectual community with a global organization dedicated to excellence in scientific research, collaboration, integrity, and communication.
★ Sigma Xi Pick
Fleet Week San Diego: Student STEM Days & Innovation Zone
Fleet Week San Diego
- Date
- Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, November 10, 12 & 13
- Place
- San Diego Waterfront and Fleet Week venues
- Admission
- Check individual Fleet Week activities for access information
What the chapter does
Six ways in. Pick the one that sounds like you.
- Lectures and talksResearchers presenting current work to a curious general audience.
- Social gatheringsMixers, meet-and-greets, and the occasional pizza party.
- Science fair and awardsJudging student research and recognising outstanding work.
- MembershipElection to Sigma Xi recognises demonstrated research achievement.
- Cookbook with chemistryMember recipes, each with the science behind it.
- Around San DiegoScience and arts events across the region, picked by members.
Where San Diego’s curious minds connect
San Diego is home to one of the world’s most dynamic communities of universities, research institutions, biotechnology and technology companies, healthcare organizations, educators, entrepreneurs, artists, and independent thinkers. Our goal is to create opportunities for those communities to connect, across disciplines, institutions, generations, and traditional boundaries.
Through lectures, discussions, networking events, community programs, student engagement, collaborative projects, and informal gatherings, we hope to make science and discovery accessible, engaging, and enjoyable while providing opportunities for members to meet people they might never encounter within their own professional circles.
More than a professional society
Sigma Xi has a long tradition of recognizing excellence in research and encouraging the responsible communication of science. The San Diego Chapter builds upon that tradition with a distinctly local mission: to create a welcoming community where ideas can be exchanged, relationships can be formed, and curiosity can lead to collaboration.
Whether you are an established researcher, an educator, a student beginning your scientific journey, a professional working in technology or innovation, or simply someone fascinated by how the world works, we invite you to explore our Chapter.
Attend an event. Meet our members. Share an idea. Join the conversation.
Welcome to Sigma Xi San Diego, where San Diego’s curious minds connect.
Stay in touch
Hear about lectures, gatherings, new cookbook recipes, and calls for science fair judges. You do not need to be a member, and we never sell or share your details.
Follow the chapter
Quick sign-up
From San Diego Scientists
New books, music, art, and notable research from the region's scientists and the artists who work with them, with a short synopsis and where to read, hear, see, or buy each one. Updated monthly.
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Book · NYU Press · August 2026
Science Fiction Ecologies: Worldmaking with Butler, Le Guin, and Merril
Shelley Streeby
An archival study of how Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Judith Merril followed environmental news, colonial history, and militarism to imagine alternative futures. A case for science fiction as a serious way of thinking about ecology and climate.
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Research paper · Nature Neuroscience · August 2026
Social isolation recruits amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex projections to escalate alcohol drinking in male mice
Kay Tye, PhD, and Reesha Patel, PhD
Being isolated switches on a circuit between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex that drives male mice to drink more alcohol, while the same circuit reduces drinking in females. Activity in the circuit predicts how much an animal will drink, pointing to a possible risk marker for alcohol use disorder and a reason treatments may need to differ by sex.
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Research paper · Cell Reports Methods · August 2026
Dye-cycling DNA origami rotors for long-term tracking of transcription at base-pair resolution
Pallav Kosuri, PhD, and Amanda L. Wacker, PhD
A DNA-origami rotor that keeps swapping in fresh fluorescent tags lets researchers watch a single RNA polymerase turn as it reads DNA, one base pair at a time, for ten minutes instead of seconds. It opens a direct window on the physical motions behind gene expression.
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Book · Wesleyan University Press · August 2026
Safe Rooms
Rae Armantrout
Poems about the temporary shelters people build against an unstable world. Armantrout has long drawn her vocabulary from physics and cosmology; this collection includes "The Uncertainty Principle," in which an atom is "localized by an interaction."
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Book · Simon & Schuster · August 2026
Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination
Cassandra Vieten, PhD
A clinical psychologist and UC San Diego researcher explains what the brain is doing when we imagine, why the capacity varies so much between people, and how it can be deliberately strengthened to improve mood, creativity, and relationships. Foreword by Pixar's Pete Docter.
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Research paper · Science · July 2026
A body-wide single-cell atlas of 3D genome folding and DNA methylation
Joseph Ecker, PhD, Jesse Dixon, MD, PhD, Jingtian Zhou, PhD, and Yue Wu
The first atlas to map how DNA folds and how it is chemically tagged, together, in 86,689 individual cells across 16 human tissues. Because most disease-linked genetic variants sit in non-coding DNA, the atlas helps connect those variants to the cell types and genes they affect, and the data are free for anyone to use.
Around San Diego: November 2026
Science and the arts across the region this month, chosen by chapter members. ★ marks a Sigma Xi Pick. Details and tickets are with each organiser.
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3 Nov 202610:00 PST
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Wednesday–Sunday, November 4–8
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Thursday–Saturday, November 5–14
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Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, November 10, 12 & 13
★ Sigma Xi Pick Fleet Week San Diego: Student STEM Days & Innovation Zone
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13 Nov 202619:30 PST
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18 Nov 202619:00 PST
★ Sigma Xi Pick Film Screening and Talk: Why Dinosaurs?
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Opens Friday, November 20; runs through January 3