Joaquin Rodriguez Lopez presenting his work at the Toyota Research Institute of North America in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In 2014, ECS and Toyota Research Institute of North America came together to establish the ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship to support young researchers working in green energy technology. The partnership between ECS and Toyota aims to leverage the Society’s network of researchers, awarding fellowship winners a minimum of $50,000 to pursue novel research over a one year period.

“We try to give folks the opportunity to do research that is a little more outside of the box,” said Paul Fanson, manager of Toyota’s North American Research Strategy Office, “where they might have difficulty getting funding somewhere else.”

As this year winds down and the 2016-2017 fellows come to the tail end of the research period, fellowship winners Elizabeth Biddinger, City College of New York; Joaquin Rodriguez Lopez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Joshua Snyder, Drexel University recently took their work to Toyota’s site in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to report their findings, connect with industry researchers, and explore opportunities that extend beyond the funding time period.

(more…)

Deadline: December 31, 2017

ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology through its honors and awards program. We are currently accepting nominations for the Canada Section Electrochemical Award, which was established in 1981 to recognize significant contributions to the advancement of electrochemistry in Canada. The recipient will be recognized for his/her achievements with a gold medal at the section’s 2018 annual meeting.

It has been a few years since we have conferred this award. The last recipient was David Shoesmith of Western Science University in 2010. In 2006, the award was presented to Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University. Consider your fellow electrochemists and let’s find out whose next!

Please review the full award details carefully before completing the application. I encourage you to submit a nomination and acknowledge the hard work of your peers!

Extended Deadline for Nominations: November 15, 2017

ECS recognizes outstanding technical achievements in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology through its honors and awards program. We are currently accepting nominations for the Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division David C. Grahame Award, which was established in 1981 to encourage excellence in physical electrochemistry research and to stimulate publication of high quality research papers in an ECS journal. This award recognizes Society members who have made outstanding contributions to the field and enhanced the scientific stature of the Society by the presentation of well-recognized papers and at Society meetings.

In spring 2017, Viola Birss delivered “Nanoscale Templates and Scaffolds for Electrochemical Device Applications” as the most recent Grahame award recipient, joining a respected group of award-winning scientists.

The award consists of a framed certificate and a $1,500 prize. The recipient is required to attend the requisite Society meeting and present a symposium lecture that will be sponsored by PAED.

Please review the award rules carefully before completing the application.

Each year, the ECS San Francisco Section assists a deserving student in Northern California in pursuing a career in the physical sciences or engineering through the Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award. The award was created in 1994 in honor of Daniel Cubicciotti: spirited researcher and innovator. Recipients receive an etched metal plaque and a $2,000 prize.

Tianyu Liu received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China in 2012, and joined Prof. Yat Li’s group at the University of California, Santa Cruz thereafter. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2017. His research focuses on development of functional materials for electrochemical energy harvesting, conversion and storage. Applications include supercapacitors, microbial fuel cells and photo-electrochemical water splitting. He is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals including Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Nanoscale, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Carbon, The Journal of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry Communications. His achievements are recognized by a number of awards including the Chancellor’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship and the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Silver Award. More details can be found on his website: http://liutianyuresearch.weebly.com/.

The San Francisco Section held the Cubicciotti award ceremony on July 13, 2017 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley where Liu presented “Five Years in University of California-Santa Cruz: From In-lab Researches to Off-campus Activities.”

The annual nomination deadline for the San Francisco Section Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award is in the spring.

By: Alyssa Doyle, ECS Membership Intern

University of Washington Student Chapter
(Click to enlarge)

ECS would like to congratulate our two 2017 Chapters of Excellence winners, the University of Washington and the Munich Student Chapter, who will receive certificates in addition to recognition in Interface for their stellar achievements in continuing to showcase their commitment to ECS’s mission.

The University of Washington’s student chapter has climbed the ranks quite rapidly since it was founded in 2016.

The 60+ members have grown their impact on electrochemical and solid state science and engineering education immensely. Some of their greatest achievements to date include:

(more…)

By: Alyssa Doyle, ECS Membership Intern

(Click to enlarge.)

ECS would like to congratulate the 2017 Outstanding Student Chapter winner, the University of Maryland for their dedication and commitment to the advancement of solid state and electrochemical science and technology.

The award (formerly The Gwendolyn B. Wood Section Excellence Award) was first created in 2012 to distinguish student chapters that represent and uphold ECS’s mission by maintaining an active student membership base, participating in various technical activities, and organizing community outreach in the fields of electrochemical and solid state science and engineering education.

The University of Maryland student chapter has come a long way since its initial approval in 2011 and has become one of ECS’s most exemplary chapters. The chapter previously won the Outstanding Student Chapter award in 2013 and has been a Chapter of Excellence for the last three years.

(more…)

By: Alyssa Doyle, ECS Membership Intern

As a student registrant, you have several unique opportunities to get involved in the 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor, MD.

Student Mixer (sponsored by BMW)
As an upcoming leader in the electrochemistry and solid state science professions, students are encouraged to attend the mixer to network with their future colleagues. Light refreshments and food will be available.

The event is being held on Monday from 1900-2100h. Student member tickets are $5 and student nonmember tickets $15.

Career Expo
A pilot-program for the society biannual meeting, the event creates the opportunity for employers/recruiters to meet and interview job-seekers, volunteers, and post-doctoral candidates in electrochemistry and solid state science.

The event will be located in the Exhibit Hall during the technical exhibit hours. Free to all meeting registrants.

Author Information Session
Join Robert Savinell, Dennis Hess, and Jeff Fergus for insight into opportunities available for publishing with ECS, understanding the journals continuous publication model and types of articles published by ECS, how to publish open access and how ECS’s Free the Science initiative supports open access for authors, where content is accessible after publication, and more.

The event will be located in Maryland 4 on Tuesday from 1600h-1700h. Open to all meeting attendees.

(more…)

Left to right: Mark Burgess, Kenneth Hernández-Burgos, and Peng Sun

ECS’s honors and awards program recognizes scientific excellence in electrochemical and solid state science. Every year, ECS presents two young author awards for the best papers published in both the Journal of The Electrochemical Society – ECS’s flagship journal, published continuously since 1902 – and the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology.

Mark Burgess and Kenneth Hernández-Burgos from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will receive the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award for best paper published by young authors in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. Peng Sun from University of Michigan will receive the Bruce Deal & Andy Grove Young Author Award for best paper published by a young author in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology.

This year’s young author awards will be presented at the 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor, MD, Oct. 1-5, 2017.

(more…)

Past ECS President Krishnan Rajeshwar (left) awarding Barry Miller (right) the Edward Goodrich Acheson Award.

Is it possible for an awards program to go full circle? Here at ECS, the answer is a resounding YES!

Consider this: every two years in the fall, The Electrochemical Society honors an outstanding scientist or engineer with the Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award and similarly acknowledges the legacy of career achievement through our oldest prize, the Edward Goodrich Acheson Award. In each case, your peers are recognized for scientific contributions within our multi-disciplinary sciences and sustained service to our Society.

So what are we asking of you?

Nominate someone. They say it’s an honor to be nominated because it is.

Who are the best candidates?

The Tobias award applicant will be 40 years of age or younger (by April 1, 2018), whose professional background and Society volunteerism demonstrates a desire for future excellence in teaching and/or research and leadership within ECS. S/he will receive a framed certificate, a $5,000 prize and life membership. The 2016 recipient was Shirley Meng, Associate Professor of NanoEngineering at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Meng is currently the secretary of our largest division and a member of the sponsorship committee.

(more…)

Each year, the ECS Battery Division recognizes achievement with four awards including its Student Research Award which was established in 1979 to recognize promising young engineers and scientists in the field of electrochemical power sources.

Lin Ma’s academic career has revolved around the research of lithium-ion batteries. He began his scientific career under the supervision of Yong Yang at Xiamen University in China, where he obtained his BA (2012) in chemistry. During this time, he had accumulated relevant experience on synthesizing and characterizing typical cathode materials of lithium-ion batteries.

Ma obtained his MSc (2014) at Dalhousie University in Canada. During that time, he focused on characterizing the reactions between charged electrodes and different electrolytes at elevated temperatures using accelerating rate calorimetry. His PhD work is currently focusing on increasing energy density and lowering cost for lithium-ion batteries by developing novel electrolyte systems. This work is supervised under Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University and exclusively sponsored by Tesla Motors/Energy. He has published 26 peer-reviewed papers and a co-authored a U.S. patent.

Ma will deliver his award talk, “A Guide to Ethylene Carbonate-Free Electrolyte Making for Li-ion Cells” on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. at the 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor.

The annual nomination deadline for the Battery Division Student Research Award is March 15.