Leo Illing Creating Community and Opportunity through SPS

For Leo Illing, it started with a room.

Tucked inside the STEM building at Santa Clara University is a space reserved just for physics majors and minors—a quiet corner of campus that quickly became the heartbeat of Leo’s college experience. “I like physics. I like people,” he says. “It’s a mash of physics and people. Of course I’m going to enjoy that space.”

That space is more than four walls—it’s the heart of Santa Clara’s Society of Physics Students (SPS), where Leo is building a community of connection, leadership, and learning.

Under Leo’s leadership, SPS has become a vibrant hub for student engagement. Weekly journal clubs give younger students a chance to sharpen their presentation skills. Quarterly astronomy nights bring the campus community up to Mount Hamilton for stargazing and telescope time. And this year, SPS launched a new partnership with the outdoor club for a camping-and-cosmos adventure under the stars.

But SPS isn’t just building community—it’s creating opportunity. Last year, Leo helped host the SPS Zone 18 meeting, welcoming undergraduates from across California and the western U.S. The event put Santa Clara’s program on the national radar, and soon after, Leo was invited to represent the region as an Associate Zone Councilor with the national SPS organization. He went on to earn a second leadership role, traveling to Washington, D.C., and connecting with physics students and professionals from across the country.

Now, Leo is preparing to pursue a PhD in physics at the University of Colorado Boulder—one of the top optics and photonics programs in the nation. Along the way, SPS has been his anchor: a space to lead, belong, explore, and grow.

Gifts from donors like you empower student leaders like Leo with the resources, mentorship, and community they need to turn curiosity into careers. His story is just one example of how AIP’s programs are shaping the future of physics—one student at a time.

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