365: Chemistry for Life
DAY 345

Alpha Chi Sigma

In 1902, a group of students formed Alpha Chi Sigma, the only national professional fraternity specializing in chemistry. The organization now has a membership of more than 63,000 men and women.

Contributed by: Gary Anderson

Credit: iStock

Alpha Chi Sigma (often referred to as AXE) is a national, co-ed, professional chemistry fraternity, founded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on December 11, 1902.It was founded by nine men, they are:

  • Raymond Tracy Conger
  • Harold Everett Eggers
  • Joseph Gerard Holty
  • Alfred Emil Kundert
  • Joseph Howard Mathews
  • Edward Gustav Mattke
  • Bart Eldred McCormick
  • Frank Joseph Petura
  • James Chisholm Silverthorn

Alpha Chi Sigma remained an all-male organization until 1971, when membership was extended to women. The founders laid out three objects to guide the fraternity:

  1. To bind its members with a tie of true and lasting friendship.
  2. To strive for the advancement of chemistry both as a science and as a profession.
  3. To aid its members by every honorable means in the attainment of their ambitions as chemists throughout their mortal lives.