Lithium ion batteries enabled the revolution in wireless and portable electronic devices and reinvigorated a quest to power hybrid-electric and electric vehicles. Existing battery technologies still face cost and performance challenges, including barriers in specific energy, energy density, service life, and charge efficiency at high rates. The fall issue of Interface, guest edited by Bor Yann Liaw and Robert Kostecki, illustrates the state-of-the-art of some notable in situ characterizations for lithium ion battery research. In his From the Editor column, Krishnan Rajeshwar writes about the Electrochemical Energy Summit. In the special section on the 220th ECS Meeting in Boston, see the exciting list of Summit panelists and other special speakers.
Pennington Corner
What's New
In his latest column, Executive Director Roque Calvo writes about Robert Dean Hancock, Founder and CEO of the Micromanipulator Company, who bequeathed to ECS the largest gift in its history. Calvo writes, "This type of gift is added to the endowment funds that support the ECS education and publication programs, which directly further the mission of the Society. Dr. Hancock was not a preeminent figure in the Society; in fact, he was not a member. His company created leading edge analytical probe stations and accessories for semiconductor probing professionals, which made him an active participant in our technical interest areas. That is certainly an extraordinary gift from an individual who was not even a member, so I asked the executor of his estate why Dr. Hancock was so generous in his bequeath to ECS.
“After years of development work for ECS, I have certainly learned to appreciate any gift to our cause and normally do not 'look a gift horse in the mouth,' but I was compelled to know more about the man who made the largest gift in our 109 year history. I was told by his friend and executor that Dr. Hancock recognized the important role ECS played in the advancement of electrochemistry, and he 'liked the Journal. The answer was wonderfully simple and yet profound; and it reinforced both the importance of our mission and the value of giving to ECS.
“The Electrochemical Society, Inc. (ECS) is charitable organization chartered under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code, which is the same classification as a church or institute of higher education, and it enables the same type of charitable tax deductions. Some constituents have misinterpreted the Inc. (Incorporated) to identify ECS as a profit-making enterprise, but incorporation in the United States does not define the mission nor the tax status of an organization.
“ECS is very different than our commercial competitors, and like a university or a church, we are dependent on donations and sponsorship to operate as a nonprofit organization. We have been operating with the assistance of charitable gifts since 1928, when Edward G. Acheson funded our first major award, which was named in his honor."
ECS Receives Its Largest Gift—ECS received a generous bequest from the estate of Robert Dean Hancock, founder of the Micromanipulator Company. A great admirer of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Dr. Hancock's bequest will be added to the Society's Publications Endowment. The Society has eliminated page charges for its journals, and the Publications Endowment will be used to help pay the costs of publishing content that increases each year, and support the maintenance of the ever-growing archive in the ECS Digital Library.
ECS Poster Awards at International Meetings—ECS sponsors nearly 20 independent meetings and conferences in any given year, and provides awards to the best posters in student poster sessions. One of the most recent awards were given at the XXVI Meeting of the Mexican Electrochemical Society/4th Meeting of the ECS Mexican Section, held in Mexico City. The other award was a whole continent away - in Greece - for the 3rd International Conference: From Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials to Nanodevices and Nanosystems.
