On Thursday, December 19, the ECS Canada Section hosts its fall 2019 Meeting:

Current Challenges and Recent Advances in Electrochemical Technologies for a Sustainable Society

The preliminary program is available here. More information is available at the Section website.

Keynote presentations

“Autonomous Light Management in Flexible Electrochromic Thin Films Integrating High Performance Silicon Solar Microcells”
Ralph G. Nuzzo
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

“The European VOLUMETRIQ Project: Driving Forward Automotive Fuel Cells”
Deborah Jones
Université de Montpellier, France

The meeting includes additional invited speakers from international and domestic institutions, award presentations, and a poster section. (more…)

Submission Deadline EXTENDED: February 12, 2020 March 15, 2020

Submit your manuscripts to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society‘s Focus Issue on Battery Safety, Reliability, and Mitigation.

About the focus issue

This Journal of The Electrochemical Society focus issue addresses the fundamental risks and issues associated with battery safety and reliability. Industry challenges with fielding safe and reliable batteries are increasing as new cell designs are introduced into advanced energy storage applications requiring higher specific energies, fast charging, and lower cost alternatives. As such, improvements in cell and battery safety design without compromising performance continues to be a major focus for researchers, manufacturers and users across all sectors of the energy storage marketplace. Better understanding of battery failure mechanisms will further enable regulatory agency approval and public acceptance of early deployment of advanced battery energy storage systems for high reliability applications. (more…)

Deadline for submitting abstracts
December 2, 2019
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #7

Symposium B02: Carbon Nanostructures in Medicine and Biology

Symposium focus:

Nanocarbons have unique electronic, optical, and structural properties that enable new applications in biology and medicine. These may include but are not limited to assays, imaging tools, sensors, and therapeutics. The session covers areas including the development of new materials, characterization, uses/demonstration of pharmacology or effects in vitro and in vivo, plant biology applications, and clinical uses.

Nanocarbons Division SES Research Young Investigator Awardee and Keynote Speaker: Prof. Markita Landry, Assistant Professor, University of California at Berkeley

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2019 ECS Young Author Awards

Jan Schwämmlein and Jiancheng Yang won the ECS 2019 Young Author Awards.  The awards were presented at the 236th ECS Meeting in Atlanta, GA, on October 13-17, 2019. Schwämmlein received the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award for his paper, “Origin of Superior HOR/HER Activity of Bimetallic Pt-Ru Catalysts in Alkaline Media Identified via Ru@Pt Core-Shell Nanoparticles.” The prize, which honors corrosion expert Norman Hackerman, is given to the best paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society in the previous year. Yang received the Bruce Deal and Andy Grove Young Author Award for his paper, “2300V Reverse Breakdown Voltage Ga2O3 Schottky Rectifiers.” This award, established in honor of semiconductor industry pioneers Andy Grove and Bruce Deal, recognizes the best paper published in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology in the previous year. The two young authors’ articles are free to read. They join a distinguished group of scientists; Stanley M. Whittingham, co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, won the ECS Young Author’s Award in 1971.

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Congratulations to Siegfried R. Waldvogel who received the 2020 ECS Organic and Biological Electrochemistry Division Manuel M. Baizer Award in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of organic electrochemistry. The award is sponsored by The Electrosynthesis Company, Inc. and Monsanto Company. A symposium and reception in his honor will be held at the 237th ECS Meeting with IMCS 2020.

Siegfried R. Waldvogel

Waldvogel received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Bochum/Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research. After postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute, he worked at the University of Münster, then as professor of organic chemistry at the University of Bonn. Waldvogel became a full professor in 2010 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He has recently been named the director of the Gutenberg University Forschungskollegs.

Long Luo, the featured speaker at ECS Detroit Section’s November 21 meeting, presents:

“Bubble-based electrochemical methods for detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water”


Long Luo

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan (more…)

Robb Cohen Photography & Video

John W. Weidner of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Cincinnati received the 2019 Carl Wagner Memorial Award at the 236th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting. The award recognizes mid-career achievement, excellence in research areas of interest of the Society, and significant contributions in the teaching or guidance of students or colleagues in education, industry, or government.

Weidner delivers “Mathematical Modeling of Electrochemical Systems” on Tuesday, 15 October, at 1140-1200 in Room 311.

John W. Weidner

John W. Weidner is an ECS Fellow and dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. He published 113 refereed journal articles and contributed to over 200 technical presentations in the field of electrochemical engineering. His research group created novel synthesis routines… (more…)

Is the Force With Us Yet?

In “The Lightsaber Battery,” author Richard Rogers asks if recent electric vehicle battery research makes a lightsaber battery possible. After reviewing Star Wars technology and the current state of battery technology, his conclusion is a conditional yes! However, the final stage of light saber development depends on a Kyber crystal which amplifies and channels the cosmic energy of the Force. Unfortunately, a crystal like that hasn’t been discovered in our universe yet.

Star Wars fans and electric battery developers do not despair! The need for longer-lasting electric vehicle batteries has raised cycle life goals similar to the lightsaber’s requirements—and electrochemists are rising to the challenge! That galaxy “far, far away” is coming closer and closer. (more…)

John B. Goodenough

Christina Bock, president of the Board of The Electrochemical Society (ECS), congratulated John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino who today were jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

“On behalf of the entire ECS community, I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to our esteemed members: John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino on being awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry ‘for the development of Lithium-ion batteries,’” said Bock. “This is fitting recognition for the truly groundbreaking advancements these pioneers have made for our field and for the whole of humanity. Simply put, their research is the enabling science upon which the solutions to the grand challenges facing the planet—renewable energy, clean transportation, communications to name but a few—will be based. We are honored to count their almost 60 years of combined membership among our ranks.” (more…)

To compete globally in key energy sectors through the 21st century and beyond, the U.S. must accelerate the discovery and development of novel materials. The I05 symposium at the 236th ECS Meeting, “Accelerated Discovery and Development of Energy Materials,” is a unique opportunity for researchers and stakeholders from electrochemistry and materials research to meet, network, and initiate new collaborations in highly impactful research and development. The electrochemical research community focuses on important energy applications such as generation, storage, distribution, and utilization. The materials research community focuses on computational and experimental methodologies for accelerated materials discovery and development, and advancing multiple sectors. While rapid scientific advances are occurring independently in both fields, bringing world leaders from the two fields together is an extraordinary opportunity to achieve materials breakthroughs with the potential to revolutionize the U.S. energy sectors. (more…)