Meeting attendees discussing the research presented at the Student Poster Session.

ECS established General Student Poster Session Awards in 1993 to acknowledge the excellence and diligence of our students’ work. The winners demonstrate a deep understanding of their research topic and how it relates to one or more of the fields of interest to The Electrochemical Society. At each biannual ECS meeting, awards are given to students in two categories, electrochemical science and solid state science and technology. First and second place winners receive a certificate in addition to a cash award.

The 228th ECS Meeting Student Poster Session award winners holding their certificates.

For the 228^th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, the first place winners are Daiki Ito, and Xiaoxing Xia. Daiki Ito of Nagoya University, was the Solid State winner, and Xiaoxing Xia, of California Institute of Technology, was the Electrochemical Science winner. The second place winners were Kenta Machida of Kogakuin University and Subrahmanyam Goriparti of Instituto Italiano Di Technologia. Congratulations to all four winners!

In order to be eligible for the General Student Poster Session Awards, students must submit their abstracts to the Z01 General Society Student Poster Session symposium, and present their posters at the biannual meeting.

First place winner, Xiaoxing Xia accepting his certificate.

The submission deadline for the upcoming 229^th ECS Meeting in San Diego is December 11, 2015.

Submit your abstract for the San Diego meeting today.

On October 26^th, 2015, the ECS British Columbia Student Chapter held its 1^st Annual Academic Workshop.

The workshop was held at the Molecular Biology and Chemistry Building located at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. It attracted nearly 40 attendees from all different departments and disciplines at The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and Tsinghua University, China. Also in attendance was the Chair of ECS Canada Section, Dr. Michael Eickerling.

The attendees were given a detailed presentation from Dr. Andrei Kulikovsky on the topic of Physical Models of Impedance Spectroscopy for PEM fuel cells. Dr. Kulikovsky visited all the way from Germany for the workshop, where he is involved in modeling fuel cell components and stacks. Within the past fifteen years, Dr. Kulikovsky has published more than seventy research papers.

In 2012, he published a one-of-a-kind book called Analytical Modeling of Fuel Cells. This book is the first monograph on modeling of polymer electrolyte, direct methanol and solid oxide fuel cells performance. Dr. Kulikovsky’s current research interests include modeling of fuel cells and catalyst layers.

Dr. Andrei Kulikovsky beginning the workshop.

Attendees keenly listening to the talk and taking notes.

Congratulations on a successful workshop!

ECS would like to introduce its 2015 ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award recipient, Indiana University!

Indiana University Student Chapter officers and advisors proudly holding their award plaque.

The Outstanding Student Chapter Award is a prestigious award given annually at the fall ECS bi-annual meeting. An Outstanding Student Chapter recipient actively participates in the ECS community, hosts their own community outreach activities and lectures, and has devoted, hardworking members.

With over twenty members, Indiana University Student Chapter is led by Professor Dennis Peters and Professor Lane Baker. This group is made up of members from different research backgrounds, which allows discussion to vary and provide insight into the numerous fields of electrochemistry, including bioanalytical and environmental. The chapter has hosted guest speakers, including Allen J. Bard and Nate Lewis, on their campus to not only present seminars, but also give career advice.

The mission of the Indiana Student Chapter is to spread knowledge of electrochemical science to the younger members of their community. This year will mark the fourth year in a row that this chapter volunteered at Science Fest, where chapter members host an entire laboratory with hands-on electrochemical experiments. This coming year they will also add a research talk, open to all.

The Indiana Student Chapter strives to build a better forum for students with different backgrounds to share their ideas, host and conduct outreach activities, while furthering their professional development.

Congratulations, Indiana University!

First, I want to introduce myself! My name is Amanda Squicciarini, ECS’s newest intern. I am a junior Marketing major and Communications minor at The College of New Jersey. I’ve only been with ECS for a couple of weeks but I already feel that I have gained skills and experiences that will help me further my career. But more importantly, did you hear we have SEVEN new student chapters?!

At ECS’s 228^th Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, seven new student chapters were approved, growing our total student chapter number to 54! Expanding is a focus for ECS, the more members, the more people who have access to the science. Our student chapters are especially important since they are the scientists of our future.

Here are our seven new student chapters:

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With our 228^th meeting in Phoenix just completed, ECS is calling for abstract submissions for our 229^th meeting in San Diego, California. By submitting an abstract, you have the opportunity to present a paper or participate in a poster session and are eligible to apply for a division-sponsored travel grant. Travel grants are intended is to assist students, postdoctoral researchers, and young professionals with the travel costs of attending an ECS biannual meeting. These grants are specific to each division.

How to submit an abstract:

To submit your abstract for the 229^th meeting in San Diego, please visit here.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is DECEMBER 11, 2015.

How to apply for a travel grant:

Apply for a travel grant after submitting your abstract by visiting www.electrochem.org/travel_grants.

The deadline for travel grant submissions for the San Diego meeting is FEBRUARY 12, 2016. 

If you have any additional questions please contact travelgrant@electrochem.org.

Poster session winners Andrew Akbashev, Axel Gambou-Bosca, Andrew Durney

How to enter the General Poster Session:

Students are eligible for the biannual meeting general student poster awards by submitting their abstract to the Z01- General Society Student Poster Session. To submit your abstract for the San Diego meeting, please visit https://ecs.confex.com/ecs/229/cfp.cgi and then scroll to the “Z-General Topics” section.

The 2014 Outstanding Student Chapter Award Plaque with Prof. Arumugam Manthiram (front left) and UT-Austin Student Chapter Members.

Did you know that ECS offers over ten different awards that students in your chapter can be nominated for?  These awards include division awards, section awards and fellowships. Each award has unique qualifications and deadlines. Learn more on our website!

Upcoming Award Nomination Deadlines:

Corrosion Division Morris Cohen Graduate Student Award – December 15, 2015

ECS Summer Fellowships – January 15, 2016

Battery Division Student Research Award – March 15, 2016

ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award – March 31, 2016

For more information, contact awards@electrochem.org.

The Brno Chapter’s participants at the 16th ABAF meeting.

The spotlight is on the Brno Student Chapter from the Czech Republic! The Brno Student Chapter was established in 2006. The focus of their activities is on batteries, electrochemical conversion and the storage research field.

On September 3, 2015, members of the Brno Chapter presented at the 16^th International Conference on Advanced Batteries, Accumulators and Fuel Cells, also known as ABAF. Proceedings of this meeting will be published in an edition of ECS Transactions. In addition, four members have submitted dissertation theses this year, which are scheduled to be presented and defended early 2016. Great job, Brno!

Want your student chapter in the spotlight? Send an email to beth.fisher@electrochem.org to tell us what makes your chapter stand out!

“If you want innovation, if you want to have engineers of tomorrow, you have to have science.”

Those were the words of Bill Nye the Science guy at the 2015 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision K-12 national science competition.

A group of students from West Salem High School in Oregon took first place overall in the competition this year with their prototype of programmable bio-scaffolding that could eliminated uncontrollable bleeding from open wounds in those who take blood thinning medications.

Nye has been involved with this competition for more than a decade. Not only does Nye hope that this competition will help encourage young people to value the importance of the sciences, but that it will also highlight the need for gender inclusion in STEM.

“Half the humans are girls and women, so we want half the engineers and scientists to be girls and women,” said Nye.

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Mike Zach demonstrating his novel NanoFab Lab… in a Box! during the ECS Meeting!

“What I do is simply help develop confidence in students.”

That’s Mike Zach’s mission with his exceptionally novel NanoFab Lab… in a Box!

Looking to inspire young people and help propel them in scientific careers, Zach took it upon himself to develop an affordable, self-automated, easy to use nanolab.

What Zach is doing is allowing students to understand complex science and have a hands-on experience in making patterned nanowires. Typically nanowires need a multimillion dollar lab to be produced, but Zach has streamlined this process in order to give high school-aged students all over the country a chance to immerse themselves in this seemingly limitless science.

“I’m just looking to get more students involved in electrochemistry… in the science,” said Zach.

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David Wipf talks about the ECS Podcast during the Bard and Moore Award Winners Dinner at the 227th ECS Meeting Meeting.

From undergrads to PhD students, ECS’s David Wipf covers the educational spectrum at Mississippi State University. His goal? Wipf wants to get more students interested in science by showing them the human side of scientists and what happens beyond the lab.

Wipf recently heard Johna Leddy’s ECS podcast immediately saw the value in it for his students.

“It’s great that students get to hear how these scientists started,” said Wipf. “They weren’t super geniuses—they just liked science.”

As a professor in analytical chemistry, Wipf is always striving to get his students excited about science. While guests on the ECS podcast—such as Subhash Singhal and John Turner—happen to be very prominent scientists, Wipif appreciates the fact listeners get to see the unique stories of the guests’ roots and early scientific career.

“The podcasts show that everybody could do it if they wanted to,” said Wipf.