Dan Schwartz, Boeing-Sutter Professor and director of the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington

Daniel Schwartz, a University of Washington professor of chemical engineering and director of the Clean Energy Institute, received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation this week. The OSTP and NSF recognized Schwartz for his commitment to interdisciplinary graduate education – helping students apply their research to societal and market needs – along with his dedication to recruiting and supporting Native American STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) scholars at the UW.

“I’m proud to join this cadre of dedicated educators and mentors helping students become leading scientists and engineers,” said Schwartz. “Focusing on clean energy science, engineering and resource management at UW has brought top students from across the country to Seattle, where they have partnered with Northwest tribes and businesses to ensure the future of energy is being created here.”

Starting in 2007, Schwartz launched an NSF-funded interdisciplinary graduate training program that used tribal clean energy research partnerships to attract top Native American students to graduate degree programs in UW’s College of the Environment and College of Engineering. The program was continued and expanded in partnership with Washington State University and Salish Kootenai College with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, eventually including an undergraduate summer research experience program. Since the program launched, 26 students have completed doctoral degrees, with four awarded to Native Americans and four to other underrepresented minorities. Six masters have also been awarded – including two to Native Americans – and a tribal student-led startup company was founded. A signature achievement was the 2016 Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Washington, D.C. on fuel partially made from tribal forest thinnings.

Listen to the ECS Podcast to learn more about Dan Schwatz and open science.

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Extended Deadline: August 31, 2018

2015 IEEE NET award winner Katherine Ayers of ProtonOnsite with Venkat Subramanian, past chair of the ECS IEEE Division.

Endowed by the Dow Chemical Company Foundation to recognize significant advances in industrial electrochemistry, the IEEE Division New Electrochemical Technology Award is the only award within the ECS Honors & Awards Program presented to an organization. The purpose of the award is to promote high quality applied electrochemical R&D and is intended to highlight novel electrochemical technology which has been practiced at a commercial scale.

The IEEE NET Award consists of a commemorative plaque (for up to six key contributors). The award will be presented at the IEEE Division business luncheon in spring 2019 and the winners will be asked to present a paper on the technology development during a division sponsored symposium. Recipients may receive travel assistance in order to attend the designated meeting. Organizations are encouraged to self-nominate and reapplication is allowed.

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The Electronics and Photonics Division award was established in 1969 to encourage excellence in electronics research and outstanding technical contribution to the field of electronics science. For the purpose of this award, electronics science is defined as the engineering and physics of electronic and photonic devices, materials, manufacturing, and applications thereof. The award consists of a framed certificate, a $1,500 prize and the choice between travel assistance and division life membership.

The recipient will be asked to present a lecture at the 235th ECS Meeting in Dallas, TX in May 2019. Explore the full award details on the ECS website prior to completing the electronic application. Application deadline is August 1, 2018.

ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid-state science and technology through its Honors & Awards Program. There are many deserving members of the Electronics and Photonics Division among us and this is an opportunity to highlight their contributions.

ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology through its Honors & Awards Program. There are many deserving members of the Dielectric Science and Technology Division among us and this is an opportunity to highlight their contributions.

We are currently accepting nominations for the following award:

DST Thomas D. Callinan Award: established in 1967 to encourage excellence in dielectric investigations, to encourage the preparation of high-quality science and technology papers and patents, to encourage publication in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, and to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of dielectric science and technology. The award consists of a scroll and a $1,500 prize. The recipient will be asked to present a lecture at the 235th ECS Meeting in Dallas, TX in May 2019.

The last winner of this award was Hiroshi Iwai, Professor Emeritus at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and vice dean and Distinguished Chair Professor of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. In 2017, he presented an award talk called Dielectrics for Mos Integrated Circuits.

Submit a nomination and acknowledge the hard work of your peers! Nomination deadline is August 1, 2018.

Apply now (or nominate someone you know) for a 2019 ECS award and join an elite group of Society, division and section past winners. Deadlines are this summer and fall. Click on the links below for further details.

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2018 Soo Kim, IE&EE Division H.H. Dow Memorial Student Achievement Award winner

The winner of the 2018 Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering Division H.H. Dow Memorial Student Achievement Award is Soo Kim!

Each year, the ECS IE&EE Division recognizes and rewards promising young engineers and scientists in the field of electrochemical engineering and applied electrochemistry. The award was established in 1990 by a gift from the Dow Chemical Company Foundation and offers a framed certificate and a $1,000 prize. The nomination deadline is September 15 of each year.

Soo Kim received his PhD in materials science and engineering at Northwestern University in 2017 specializing in research and development of advanced battery materials. He received his BSE in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2008 and MS in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2009.

Before pursuing a doctorate degree in computational materials research, he worked at Samsung to develop Li-ion battery cathodes at industrial-scale (2010-2011), and as a staff scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology with Byung-Won Cho and Kyung Yoon Chung (2011-2013) to experimentally synthesize more advanced cathode materials.

Kim has co-authored over 30 patents and peer-reviewed journal papers, and has been a recipient of multiple awards including the ECS Edward G. Weston Summer Research Fellowship (2016), Northwestern Computational Research Day Poster Competition Award (2016), ECS Battery Division Travel Grant (2014), and Fifty for the Future Award from Illinois Technology Foundation (2013). Kim is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is supervised by Yang Shao-Horn. He is concentrating on the synthesis in conjunction with performing density functional theory calculations to design functional materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications.

Spring 2018 division awards were conferred at the 233rd ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA in May. It was there that Soo delivered his award lecture called “Understanding the Mn-Based Oxide Electrode Materials and Beyond from First Principles and Experiment.”

AiMES 2018 in Cancun, Mexico September 30 – October 4.

The deadline for travel grant application submissions for AiMES 2018 is Monday, June 18, 2018!

Many ECS divisions and sections offer travel grants to undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and young professionals and faculty presenting papers at ECS biannual meetings. Applications must be received no later than Monday, June 18, 2018.

See who is offering ECS divisions and sections travel grants.

Travel grant applications are available to student/postdoc and young professional/early career applicants.

After reviewing the additional application requirements for your particular division or section, please contact travelgrant@electrochem.org with any questions or concerns.

NOTE: Applicants may only apply for a travel grant from one division.

We hope to see you in Cancun this fall!

Yasser Ashraf Gandomi, the 2018 ECS IEEE Student Achievement Award winner.

Each year, the ECS Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering Division recognizes and rewards promising young engineers and scientists in fields pertaining to this division. The IE&EE award was established in 1989 and offers a framed certificate and a $1,000 prize. The nomination deadline is September 15 of each year.

Yasser Ashraf Gandomi is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Mench. He also received his MS in mechanical engineering with a minor in computational sciences from UTK. He holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Tabriz.

Ashraf Gandomi has worked on multiple projects funded by the Department of Energy and industry. His research has focused on the design, engineering, modeling, and prototyping of electrochemical conversion devices including redox flow batteries, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and electrochemical sensors.
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Each year, the ECS Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering Division recognizes and rewards promising young engineers and scientists in fields pertaining to this division. The IEEE Division Student Achievement Award was established in 1989 and offers a framed certificate and a $1,000 prize. The nomination deadline is September 15 of each year.

This year’s winner, Yasser Ashraf Gandomi, is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Mench. He also received his MS in mechanical engineering with a minor in computational sciences from UTK. He holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Tabriz.

Ashraf Gandomi has worked on multiple projects funded by the Department of Energy and industry. His research has focused on the design, engineering, modeling, and prototyping of electrochemical conversion devices including redox flow batteries, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and electrochemical sensors.
He is a member of four honor societies and is a contributing author for the International Association of Hydrogen Energy electronic newsletter and Assistant Subject Editor for its International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. His accomplishments have been recognized via several institutional awards at UTK with honors that include the Outstanding Graduate Student Award and Extraordinary Professional Promise Award. Ashraf Gandomi also won a best presentation award at the Fifth International Education Forum on Environmental and Energy Science in 2016. He is the recipient of a University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship and an IAHE Fellowship.

Spring 2018 division awards will be conferred at the 233rd ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA from May 13-17, 2018. Join Yasser as he delivers his award talk called “Mitigating Ionic and Water Transport through Polymeric Membranes in All-Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries Via Design, Engineering, and Prototyping Novel Asymmetric Cell Topologies.”