Plutonium chapter is the twenty-eighth chapter. Plutonium was chosen by the chapter at Purdue University because the symbol Pu had the letters P.U. for Purdue University.

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On May 16, 1962, the women of the Purdue Chemistry Department began the organization of the Plutonium chapter. Officers elected to effect the establishment of an Iota Sigma Pi chapter at Purdue were:

  Nina Matheny, Catalyst, Emma Stephens Larson, Reducer, Margeret Schormuller, Equivalent, Karen L. Erickson, Historian and Jean Mallan, Mordant.

The official installation of the Plutonium chapter and initiation of its members were held on February 9, 1963, in the Wetherill Room of the Chemistry Building, Purdue. Dr. Hoylande Young was the installing officer. The sponsor was Radium chapter, University of Cincinnati; the chapter adviser Dr. Nathan Kornblum, Professor of Organic Chemistry, Purdue University.

The meetings of Plutonium have been concerned with business matters, program meetings, and social gatherings. Programs have included social and political sciences, as well as scientific discussion by staff members and graduate students of Purdue University.

Marian College, Indianapolis, was affiliated with  Plutonium until May, 1971.  A  new  metropolitan  chapter, Cobalt was installed in Indianapolis at that time.

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In the past, Plutonium’s service projects included assistance with the Lafayette Science Fair for high schools, the annual Christmas party held by the Chemistry Department, and the social tea after football games in the fall sponsored jointly by Plutonium, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and Alpha Chi.

Currently, the main activities of the Plutonium chapter are National Chemistry Week, in collaboration with the ACS, and the Chemistry Discovery Day with Girl’s Scout troops from all Indiana. Dr. Avanelle Kirksey was elected Coordinator Members-at-Large at the Seventeenth Triennial Convention in Cincinnati, June, 1972. Dr. Ching Siang Tang Yeh served as the chapter advisor after 1968 followed by Dr. Marcy Towns and, currently, Dr. Suzanne Bart.

The Catalysts of Plutonium have been:

  1. ✴Nana Matheny

  2. ✴Emma Stephens Larson

  3. ✴Nancy Jackobs

  4. ✴Eunice Kreider

  5. ✴Martha Ownbey

  6. ✴Rita Reed

  7. ✴Helen Hauer

  8. ✴Patricia Thorstenson

  9. ✴Carol Hooker (two years)

  10. ✴Diana Darling (two years)

  11. ✴Ruthann Nichols

  12. ✴Rosemary Rader