The SLU's chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) is back!

One of the goals of the SPS is to create an "esprit de corps" among the students and the faculty. SPS has hosted several yearly student-faculty-staff picnics since the year 2000.

These events helped greatly the new students in getting acquainted with the SLU physics community. In the springs of 2001, 2002 and 2004 SPS toured the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago IL. This past fall SPS participated in the Saint Louis University "Make a Difference Day" by helping renovate a home. Unofficially SPS members provide support and study groups to help each other understand (i.e. survive!) physics courses.

Every summer, several SLU physics students have participated in research internships at various institutions such as Auburn University, Oklahoma State University, Lucent Technologies and even NASA. Upon returning to SLU in the fall, each student presented a short seminar on the research they performed. These summer internships were excellent learning experiences for those involved, and through the seminars everyone was able to benefit from the students' experiences.

Physics students at SLU are associated with a wide variety of academic backgrounds due to the various physics programs available, namely the straight B.S. and B.A. degrees, a physics minor program and a double major program. With the B.S. degree in particular, there is enough flexibility through its eight "allied electives" to coordinate enough courses for a double major with any other academic field, while still graduating in a reasonable amount of time. Currently, there are physics students with double majors in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics and even music.