Beta Kappa Chi

  Golden Yellow and   Royal BlueSymbolClover Leaf, Skull and Crossed Bones, Circle, Retort, Balance, ScrollPublicationBeta Kappa Chi BulletinChapters67Members66,000 lifetimeHeadquartersc/o Southern University and A&M College
244 William James Hall
PO Box 10046
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70813
United StatesWebsitewww.betakappachi.org

Beta Kappa Chi (ΒΚΧ) is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes academic achievement in the fields of natural science and mathematics. It was established in 1923 at Lincoln University, an historically Black university near Oxford, Pennsylvania.

Beta Kappa Chi was founded by science students and faculty at Lincoln University in 1923 as a scholastic honor society that recognizes academic achievement among students in the fields of natural science and mathematics.^[1][2][3] Its founders were a biologist, a chemist and a mathematician.^[4] Dr. Robert S. Jason and Major Hildrus Poindexter were two of its charter members.^[2]

Initially, Beta Kappa Chi operated as a local science club.^[2] It became a national organization in 1926 with the establishment of the Beta chapter at West Virginia State College.^[2] The was followed by Gamma at Howard University.^[2] The society expanded to other historically black colleges and universities in the United States from 1926 to 1941.^[4] It published its first newsletter, Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Society News Letter, in May1943; its name was changed to the curent Beta Kappa Chi Bulletin with the third issue in May 1944.^[2]

The society changed its name to Beta Kappa Chi National Honor Society in 1960.^[4] It was admitted to the Association of College Honor Societies in 1961.^[3] Nearly every historically Black college and university in the United States had a chapter of Beta Kappa Chi by 1965.^[4]

As of 2024, Beta Kappa Chi honor society has 67 active chapters across the United States, and 66,000 members.^[5]

The motto of Beta Kappa Chi is ''Science holds the Golden Key to the Royal Palace of Knowledge''.^[4] Its colors are golden yellow and royal blue.^[1]

Its key features are the Greek letters ΒΚΧ and its symbols, the clover leaf, skull and crossed bones, retort, balance, and scroll.^[4][1]

Its publication is the Beta Kappa Chi Bulletin.^[3][2]

Membership is open to undergraduate and graduate students.^[3] Undergraduates are eligible for membership if they have completed 64 hours of college courses with 17 hours in the sciences, with a B average, and rank in the upper fifth of their class.^[3] Graduate students must have completed fifteen hours in the sciences with a mix of As and Bs.^[3]

Beta Kappa Chi has an annual national convention that includes research presentations by its members.^[3]

As of 2024, Beta Kappa Chi honor society has 67 active chapters across the United States.^[5][6][7] Chapters were assigned Greek letter names in alphabetical order until 1950; at that time Greek letter names were abolished and all chapters were named by their host institution.^[8]

• Ulysses Grant Dailey, surgeon and president of the National Medical Association^[2]
• Mary Elliott Hill, one of the earliest African-American women to become a chemist.
• Lynda Marie Jordan, biochemist and associate professor of chemistry at North Carolina A&T State University
• Angie Turner King, professor of chemistry and mathematics at West Virginia State College
• Evelyn Nicol, immunologist, microbiologist, and the first to isolate the herpes zoster virus
• Joseph Alphonso Pierce, mathematician and statistician
• Hildrus Poindexter, bacteriologist^[2]
• Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro, professor at the Tuskegee Institute, University of Connecticut at Storrs, and Georgia State University
• Carl Glennis Roberts, one of the first African Americans to be elected to the American College of Surgeons and a president of the National Medical Association^[2]
• Gladys W. Royal, early African-American biochemist
• Alberta Jones Seaton, professor of biology at Texas Southern University and the first African-American women awarded a doctorate in zoology
• Jerome Singleton, Paralympic athlete
• Frederick D. Stubbs, thoracic surgeon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^{[2][9][10][11]}
• Louise Nixon Sutton, first chair of the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics at Elizabeth City State University
• Thyrsa Frazier Svager, head of the Department of Mathematics at Central State University
• Levi Watkins, heart surgeon who was the first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in a human patient
• Michael Duryea Williams, professor at Clark Atlanta University
• James Edward Young, professor physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Honor cords
• Honor society

• Official website