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If you are interested in applying for this position, please send an email indicating your interest along with a cover letter detailing your relevant experience and a resume or CV to sps@aip.org, with the subject line: Editor application. Applications will be reviewed beginning September 1, 2012.

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Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, is seeking an editor for its bi-annual publication, Radiations. Sigma Pi Sigma and its sister organization, The Society of Physics Students (SPS) are housed within the American Institute of Physics, a 501(c)(3) membership corporation.

Duties include leading SPS staff to produce high quality physics related content for the print publication (and its associated web version) appropriate for alumni of undergraduate physics departments, upper level physics undergraduates and their mentors.

The Editor will work with the SPS Director, the Assistant Editor, and the Radiations Advisory Board to craft a vision for the magazine and to address the review process, deadlines, and the publishing process. The Editor will meet with staff approximately every month to provide content ideas for future issues, manage and oversee project schedule for each issue, and make final decisions on content.

A stipend will be provided to the editor and will be reviewed annually (effort is estimated to average 4-5 hours per week).

Brief Description of Job Duties

1. Maintain high quality editorial and graphical standards for Radiations.
2. Acquire editorial materials, including feature articles, either directly or through staff.
3. Develop and maintain a working pipeline of articles/departments/stories.
4. Contribute editorial content directly to various parts of the magazine.
5. Lead editorial production schedule, working with SPS Director, Assistant Editor, and staff.

Qualifications

• PhD in physics or closely related field preferred
• Extensive familiarity of undergraduate physics community
• Knowledge of professional physics community and/or industrial and applied physics careers
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

The Society of Physics Students (SPS) is the professional society for physics students and their mentors, and operates under the auspices of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). SPS is the professional society for physics students and their mentors. With over 4000 members in over 800 chapters on college campuses, SPS provides opportunities for physics students across the nation, including research awards, outreach programs, scholarships, and travel awards. The SPS website provides information and applications for these opportunities, as well as other physics contacts, society news, hot science, physics career information, and the lighter side of physics. SPS membership is $24 per year and members receive access to Physics Today magazine monthly and The SPS Observer quarterly; undergraduate members have the opportunity to become part of one of 10 other physics professional societies through the joint membership program, as well. SPS is also instrumental in helping to maintain the national digital library for physics students (www.the-nucleus.org), which houses a clearinghouse for physics scholarships and summer research opportunities, among other things. Approximately 500 of the 700 SPS chapters also have a Sigma Pi Sigma chapter on campus (see below).

Sigma Pi Sigma is the physics honor society, with chapters at most SPS institutions that grant a traditional physics bachelor's degree. Members, usually upper level undergraduates but at times, graduate students, alumni, and faculty, are also elected into Sigma Pi Sigma based on academic record.  The typical member of Sigma Pi Sigma is a 'hidden physicist', that is, not an academic physics researcher, but rather, working throughout society as an engineer, a managers, a scientist, an educator, etc. Most of the roughly 40,000 members receive Radiations, the society's official publication, twice per year. Sigma Pi Sigma members pay one-time dues upon their reception into the society, and many of them choose to support SPS programs, scholarships, and awards through annual donations made to the society. The society hosts a Congress every four years; the most recent Congress was held at FermiLab, and the 2012 Congress will be held in Orlando on November 8-10, and will include tours of the Kennedy Space Center. Details about how an SPS chapter can be expanded to include a Sigma Pi Sigma chapter are included in the SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Information Handbook sent out the SPS chapter advisors each year, or by contacting the national office at sps@aip.org.

Both organizations are housed within, and supported by, the American Institute of Physics (AIP), within the Education Division, as a service to physics students and to the 10 member societies of AIP. AIP is a 501(c)(3) membership corporation chartered in New York State in 1931 for the purpose of promoting the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare. The American Institute of Physics is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer.