Sigma Xi is an honorary society for scientists and engineers, founded in 1886 at Cornell.

Friendship in Science. While those whose heart and soul is in their work, are coping with the great problems of Nature, let them remember that the ties of friendship cannot be investigated, but only felt. Let them join heart and hand, forming a brotherhood in Science and Engineering; thus promoting and encouraging by those strong, personal attachments of friendship, the highest and the truest advances in the scientific field. To lend aid and encouragement to those newer brothers, who likewise, laboring in the same sphere are aspiring to honored positions. And in collegiate halls to award an honor, which to scientific recipients shall signify, "Come up higher!"

Therefore, with these ends and objects, the signers of this paper, do hereby agree to lend their efforts to the establishment of an organization to be publicly known as the Society of the Sigma Xi.

From the first Sigma Xi Constitution (1886)

They're now headquartered in Research Triangle Park, about an hour away from Greensboro here in NC.  I can only presume they've updated their constitution to remove all the sexism.

"Did Science Fiction Influence You?"

In 2010, Sigma Xi took on an unusual informal research project.  They asked their 60,000 members to reflect on their experiences with science fiction, in their lives and in their careers.  They selected their favorite answers and turned them into this white paper.  Totally anecdotal, with no criteria for inclusion or anything that would justify this as actual science.  Still, it's kind of interesting.  Most of these are clearly old white dudes who read the Big Three -- Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke -- but there are also fans of science fiction TV and movies.  

As always, there are debates as what counts as SF.

"I still enjoy the occasional Sci-Fi novel or short story, but am particular in my definition of real science fiction. It should violate no known laws of nature and should anticipate only technologies that would not do so. Obviously, I am not much impressed by deep space travel adventures. No Trecky, I. But if I call it fantasy, I am very willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy a fun tale, such as Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander time travel series."

Those same debates continue now, through the hacking of the Hugo Awards, and I have to wonder if the broadening of the demographics of SF characters bodes well for the broadening of the demographics of STEM professions.  There's no data on that.

Given the age of most of the respondents, it shouldn't be surprising how little mention they make of conventions and SF fandom in general.  That community has really exploded in the past thirty years or so.

My story

Personally, I watched a lot of SF on network television (no cable, and no movies).  However, I read very little of it until college.  As a kid I was more a fan of superhero comics like @readingdanvers.  The characters had a lot more personality than the average highly competent and highly stable astronaut or test pilot.  Tony Stark was an alcoholic, etc.  Given the ideas percolating through them, and the imaginary advanced technology, I would call comics SF, but a lot of other people would not, because they also contained magic and gods and pretty much everything else that wasn't censored at the time.

During college, my association with a gaming group called the Miskatonic Student Union broadened my horizons.  Having several used bookstores around town made a big difference, too.  I gave up my ambitions to be a comic book artist and took classes in science and writing.  If I had known during the late 1980s that scientific & medical illustration was a real and viable option, I might have made different choices.

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Once I got to grad school, studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at a medical school, comics had become too expensive, and I had no time for novels (too many journal articles to read), so I got into reading short stories, which led to audio fiction podcasts like Escape Pod.  Research was essentially nothing like how it was depicted in 1970s SF -- much slower, more repetitive, and failure-prone, though prose stories have become much more realistic in that way -- and I got into teaching, where I could actually use SF to help reach my students.

Nowadays I do a lot of science outreach to the public.  For instance, I write a column for SF writers for the Intergalactic Medicine Show, to help them improve the science in their stories.  Because of that column, I occasionally do a science panel or two at a fan convention.  I also help organize a local science discussion group, an associated book club, and hopefully soon a YouTube / local cable access TV show.

How 'bout YOU, Steemians?

While most of us are not members of Sigma Xi, I thought it would be fun to repeat their survey here.  There's still the self-selection bias inherent in any Internet research (people who don't care won't answer), but I'm not really worried about experimental validity at this point.  Maybe later if there's enough interest.  For now, same question:

How did science fiction influence you in your choice of career and projects?  If at all ...

Reply in the comments below, as a human.  Voting bots are great and profitable and all that, but this is an exercise in focused personal storytelling.

Thanks for reading!