Transistors are by far the most important functional semiconductor devices. They are a basic building block for all integrated circuits (ICs), and hence, progress in transistor design is a key driver of IC technology in terms of computational and storage capabilities. Guest edited by Jerzy Ruzyllo, this issue of Interface demonstrates the diversity in the field of transistor engineering, and discusses trends with regard to the modification of its architecture driven by specific target applications. Interface Editor Krishnan Rajeshwar, in his column, Retooling Academic Silos…, considers opportunities that can work beyond the academic domain. The issue also previews the 223rd ECS meeting in Toronto, and has a very special ECS Classics on the late Vladimir Bagotsky—a true scientist and teacher—and widely recognized for his scientific activities in electrode kinetics, electrocatalysis, and power sources research.
Pennington Corner
What's New
“Walking on a high wire requires focus, balance, and a commit- ment to venture across a precarious distance with the confidence that leads you safely to your destination.” So notes ECS Executive Director Roque Calvo in his recent column. Calvo went on to say, “That sums up our publications activities over the past year when we restructured the program by: introducing three new journals, reorganizing the editorial boards, changing the submission software and composition vendors, and finally, moving the ECS Digital Library (ECS DL) to HighWire Press.
“HighWire Press, an affiliate of Stanford University, is the platform vendor we selected to host the ECS Digital Library. We made a seamless transition on July 1 when we moved our library of approximately 95,000 journal manuscripts, meeting proceedings papers, and abstracts from AIP’s platform to HighWire. We are already seeing the benefits of being on this new robust platform that provides exceptional utility for our users. As ECS approaches the 100,000 paper milestone, we feel well-positioned to provide broad dissemination of research in electrochemical and solid state science and technology from our traditional publications and archives, and from the new additions.
“…With a long history of success and great recognition for our important role in the science, one might wonder why ECS would venture onto the high wire. The simple answer is that the publishing world has changed drastically, forcing ECS to make these dramatic adaptations in order to improve the impact factors of our journals and provide broader dissemination of the content. These drastic changes drove our publishing partner AIP to discontinue their publications services for ECS and other customers, and forced us to find another library platform (HighWire), new manuscript submission systems (eJournalPress), and composition services (Aptara). Finally, the impact factors collected and reported by the commercial publishing giant Thomson Reuters (TR) compelled us to reorganize the ECS journals and editorial boards so that we could create the correct alignment with the TR journal categories. The technical scope of both JES and ESL were too broad to fit within any of the TR categories and consequently our journals were being measured against journals with dissimilar content, which made this categorical realignment in the citation indices a critical step to higher impact factors.
“…As the only nonprofit publisher in the field, ECS has an important stewardship role and responsibility to publish the most important research in electrochemical and solid state science and technology.”
The Evolving ECS Publications—ECS publications have undergone some exciting changes in the last 18 months. For the journals, this has meant three new peer-reviewed titles, new Technical Editors, and for the first time, the publication of focus issues; and ECS Transactions welcomed a new Editor.
People in the News—Allen J. Bard and John B. Goodenough, pre-eminent scientists in their fields, were each awarded the National Medal of Science, one of the highest honors bestowed by the U.S. government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. Lubomyr T. Romankiw was recently honored for 50 years of electrochemistry at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He is recognized internationally for his work on magnetic recording and the development of a new fabrication paradigm for thin film inductive heads.
ECS Sections—Under the auspices of ECS, these geographically-organized groups offer their members an excellent array of programming. Last fall, the Canada Section hosted a symposium on Electrochemistry and Materials, with a plenary lecture given by Frederic Kanoufi of ESPCIParisTech, France. The Chile Section co-sponsored the IV Chilean Symposium of Electrochemistry and a summer course in electrochemistry.
Institutional Member News—ECS Institutional Members are valuable partners in helping to advance the Society’s purpose. Faraday Technology, Inc., a Patron level member, recently reached the 8-year mark with ECS. The company is an electrochemical research, development, and engineering firm working with university collaborators to provide innovative electrochemical technologies for commercial and government clients.
Free Resources—Two features that appear in every issue of Interface are excellent, free resources for researchers. Websites of Note is a quick look at some of websites useful to the broad electrochemical community. Tech Highlights provides free online access to noteworthy articles from the ECS journals.
Redcat—Redcat is a unique community created by and for everyone in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology. Search a monumental archive of cross-disciplinary, top-quality research. Connect to your community and expand globally in one network that you help to create. Share ideas and develop new research streams with your peers—find them, talk to them, and learn from them.
