Elton Cairns on life before, during, and after COVID-19

To round out our series, The ECS Community Adapts and Advances, we checked in with Past ECS President Elton J. Cairns, who has been a member of the Society since 1961. Over his 60+ years with ECS, he was active in the Niagara-Mohawk Section; served on many Society and division committees; was Battery division editor; held all the offices of the Physical Electrochemistry division (Chairman, 1981-1983); organized Society meeting symposia; and was elected Vice-President (1986) and President (1989-1990). Dr. Cairns received the Turner Book Prize in 1963 and was elected Fellow of The Electrochemical Society in 1991. All of this on top of teaching, mentoring, and making important contributions to science! He is Professor of the Graduate School, Berkeley College of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.

Life outside the lab

“We have been in shut-down for over a year without access to the lab—even though now I am vaccinated. I have been active working with some grads and postgrads through Zoom. Mostly I help them with articles they seek to publish. As for my own work, I filled the year with activities related to publishing—the nuts and bolts of the publishing process. I stay in contact with colleagues around the world through Zoom and Skype. (more…)

Alex Peroff, PhD, with (from left to right), Pine Research mascots the Post-Duck and Dr. Reducks.

Alex Peroff Looks on the Bright Side

Last spring, when the Society spoke with Alex Peroff, PhD, Electroanalytical Scientist at Pine Research, we were impressed by his positive attitude in the face of the challenges posed by the pandemic. We wondered if, after a year of living under COVID-19 restrictions, he was still as upbeat. The short answer: yes! The long answer follows.

Life not on the road

Before 2020, Peroff traveled extensively. Since spring 2020, he’s worked from home. “My only travel was to drive to Pine’s Pennsylvania facility last summer. There were a lot of social distancing protocols to make sure that everything was safe. Before, everyone worked together on a first shift. Now there are two shifts. I don’t think there’s going to be much safe travel until more people are vaccinated and the numbers of new cases significantly decrease. It’ll be a slow process.”

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Cummins Inc. announced that Hydrogenics Corporation is transitioning to the Cummins brand and will now be known as Cummins Inc. In September 2019, Cummins closed on the acquisition of Hydrogenics, a fuel cell and hydrogen production technologies provider. Hydrogenics has been an ECS Institutional Member since 2019. (more…)

Carolyn Graverson’s First Semester at Grad School

As part of our check-in with the COVID-19 series interviewees, we thought a student’s point of view would be interesting. When we spoke with Carolyn Graverson last spring, she was completing her senior year at Lewis University and preparing to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at Rice University. She was home from Rice when we spoke.

Still not your usual year

Carolyn’s first semester courses were “blended.” Two were fully online; others combined in-person and digital learning. As she worked in a lab and as a TA, Carolyn had high priority status to get weekly COVID-19 tests. These, plus mandatory indoor and outdoor mask-wearing, and students pledging to stay safe and isolate, made it comfortable for Carolyn to be on campus. She attended different groups’ virtual meetings and visited their labs in person to choose her research focus. As there were fewer in-person meetings, it wasn’t the same as pre-pandemic. Nonetheless, Carolyn is happy with her decision to join the Matthew R. Jones Lab, focusing on nanoparticle assembly and ligand design. (more…)

SanDisk—an ECS Sustaining Level Institutional Member for six years—announced plans to change the name of its Japanese entity to Western Digital GK as of January 1, 2021.

Western Digital provides NAND flash memory, drive devices-SDD (Solid State Drive) and HDD (Hard Disk Drive) to retail consumers, enterprises, and large-scale data centers. The company delivers top-level total storage solutions, developing and mass-producing multiple products, including WD® and SanDisk® brands. As part of ongoing integration activity, Western Digital is renaming certain legacy entities to align with the Western Digital name. Products will continue to be marketed under the Western Digital®, G-Technology™, SanDisk® and WD® brands. (more…)

2020 ECS Corrosion Division Morris Cohen Graduate Student Award Goes to Chao Liu

Each year, the ECS Corrosion Division recognizes outstanding academic achievements in corrosion science and/or engineering through the Morris Cohen Graduate Student Award. Congratulations to the 2020 Corrosion Division Morris Cohen Graduate Student Award winner, Chao (Gilbert) Liu of the Shell Technology Center. (more…)