Recognizing Outstanding Service

NOV 11, 2025

Service is one of the four pillars of Sigma Pi Sigma, essential to the fabric of the society. Through Outstanding Service Awards, the SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma Executive Committee recognizes people who have gone above and beyond in their service to the fields of physics and astronomy, the societies, or their members. Recipients are nominated by members for service at the local, regional, or national level. Beginning in the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a lull in SPS chapter activities at many schools, as classes moved online and group meetings halted. By the time students could safely return to campuses and clubs, many experienced SPS chapter leaders had already graduated, leaving new students to rebuild and redefine their chapters. The two most recent recipients of SPS Outstanding Service Awards, Landon Boone and Ty Stromberg, carried out that challenge with passion and purpose.

Kendra Redmond

Freelance Writer

Matthew (Landon) Boone

Nominated by Tatiana Allen, University of TN-Chattanooga

When Landon Boone started at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in the fall of 2021, he quickly became active in SPS, working with UTC’s new SPS advisor, Professor Tatiana Allen, to revive the chapter. During his first semester, Boone coauthored an SPS Chapter Research Award proposal to build a working LEGO model of the Kibble watt balance, based on the balance used by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to redefine the kilogram. The funding was awarded, and Bonne enthusiastically led his peers in the project over the following year. You can read about their efforts on the SPS website at students. aip.org/observer/legos-metrology-and-plancks-constant.

During his time at UTC, Boone also served as vice president and president of his SPS chapter, increasing chapter membership threefold, planning outreach activities, and leading additional SPS research projects. He maintained high academic achievements while also conducting research and presenting at conferences. He was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma in the fall of 2023.

“I cannot overestimate the impact that Landon has made on the department, the physics program, our SPS chapter, fellow students, and the multitude of people during the physics outreach events,” wrote Allen in Boone’s nomination letter. “He is a deep and careful thinker and a true intellectual, who loves to inquire.”

Boone’s citation reads, “For his service to the UTC Chapter of the Society of Physics Students and the Physics Program; for being a true leader who helped revive the Chapter after the COVID pandemic and played a critical role in making the Chapter a thriving and successful community of students.”

This fall Boone will begin graduate school in physics with a concentration in quantum information science and technology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Ty Stromberg

Nominated by Lt. Col. Benjamin Roth, United States Air Force Academy

When Cadet Ty Stromberg took charge of the Physics and Astronomy Club at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), he didn’t just restart the club—he took it to a whole new level. This was on full display in 2023 when, under his leadership, the club hosted more than 800 attendees on the USAFA planetarium grounds for a morning of games, telescopes, information booths, space history, and viewing of a partial solar eclipse. For the April 2024 total solar eclipse, Stromberg again took the lead, helping to organize an intricate data collection initiative involving 25 club members, four data streams, and two states as part of a NASA-funded citizen scientist program.

During his two years as cadet in charge, Stromberg launched a range of STEM outreach programs—from star parties at the campus observatory to visits to local schools—while also working to reduce attrition in STEM at the Academy and engage his peers in scientific inquiry. At the same time, he conducted research on ground-based satellite observations and space domain awareness, and in 2025, he helped the USAFA Astronomical Research Group and Observatory (ARGO) secure its place as the 2025 USAFA Research Team of the Year.

“His visionary leadership transformed a period of dormancy into a vibrant hub of scientific exploration, inspiring countless cadets and significantly impacting the Academy’s STEM outreach,” wrote Roth in Stromberg’s nomination letter. “Ty has fostered a culture of scientific reasoning and leadership.” Stromberg’s citation reads, “For his exceptional service in revitalizing the USAFA Physics and Astronomy Club (SPS Chapter), demonstrating visionary leadership, and inspiring widespread scientific engagement.”

This fall he will begin a master’s degree in atmospheric sciences at the Air Force Institute of Technology.