Is ECS a fundamental part of your professional life? Do you plan on remaining involved with the ECS for years to come? If so, commit to the ECS for the long haul! Consider lifetime membership today!

ECS offers different membership plans to meet the needs of individuals in academia, industry, and government. The lifetime membership option is designed for individuals who wish to become ECS members for their entire lives.

The lifetime membership is a one-time payment for your Society dues and a one-time payment for your division dues. Pricing for lifetime membership dues will vary. Contact customerservice@electrochem.org to inquire about a lifetime membership quote.

***For your convenience, we can accept installment payments for lifetime membership.***

As a lifetime member, you will receive all of the benefits of ECS membership, including 100 free full-text downloads from the ECS Digital Library, discounts on meeting registrations, unlimited electronic access to ECS meeting abstracts, and a subscription to Interface, our quarterly membership magazine. Once a year, you will receive an inquiry from ECS to confirm your contact information. This is simply to keep our records up-to-date.

Avoid the inconveniences of yearly renewals and fluctuating membership prices. Pay once and become an ECS member for life!

If lifetime membership isn’t for you, check out our multi-year membership options!

Artificial limbs have experience tremendous evolution in their long history. Throughout history, we’ve gone from the peg leg of the Dark Ages to technologically advanced modern day prosthesis that mimic the function of a natural limb. However, most prosthesis still lack a sense of touch.

Zhenan Bao, past ECS member and chemical engineer at Stanford University, is at the forefront of the research looking to change that.

(MORE: Read Bao’s past meeting abstracts in the ECS Digital Library for free.)

Recently on NPR’s All Things Considered, Bao described her work in developing a plastic artificial skin that can essentially do all the things organic skin can do, including sensing and self-healing.

The self-healing plastic Bao uses mimics the electrical properties of silicon and contains a nano-scale pressure sensor. The sensor is then connected to electrical circuits that connect to the brain, transmitting the pressure to the brain to analyze as feeling.

Additionally, the skin is set to be powered by polymers that can turn light into electricity.

While there is still much work to be done, Bao and her colleagues believe that this product could help people who have lost their limbs regain their sense of touch.

Image: AlexanderAIUS

Graphene’s potential seems limitless. From to patches that monitor glucose and inject treatment to water-splitting capabilities, the popularly proclaimed “wonder material” is finding a home in a host of applications. However, graphene has yet to make it wide-spread, commercial applications.

To help take graphene from the lab to society, the Graphene Flagship has been formed as a European initiative promoting collaborative research on the up-and-coming material. Recently, the initiative published a paper detailing the possibility of creating light-responsive graphene-based devices that could be applied to anything from photo-sensors to optically controllable memories.

(MORE: Listen to our podcast with nanocarbons expert Bruce Weiseman, where we talk graphene, fullerenes, and all things nano.)

This from Graphene Flagship:

The work shows how, by combining molecules capable of changing their conformation as a result of light irradiation with graphite powder, one can produce concentrated graphene inks by liquid phase exfoliation. These graphene inks can then be used to make devices which, when exposed to UV and visible light, are capable of photo-switching current in a reversible fashion.

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The iconic Moore’s law has predicted the technological growth of the chip industry for more than 50 years. When ECS member and co-founder of Intel Gordon Moore proposed the law, he stated that the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years. So far, he’s been correct.

But researchers have started hitting an apex that makes keeping the pace of Moore’s law extremely difficult. It has become harder in recent years to make transistors smaller while simultaneously increasing the processing power of chips, making it almost impossible to continue Moore’s law’s projected growth.

However, researchers from MIT have developed a long-awaited tool that may be able to keep driving that progress.

(READ: “Moore’s Law and the Future of Solid-State Electronics“)

The new technology that hopes to keep Moore’s law going at its current pace is called extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Industry leaders say it could be used in high-volume chip manufacturing as early as 2018, allowing continued growth in the semiconductor industry, with advancements in our mobile phones, wearable electronics, and many other gadgets.

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According to Wikipedia, a teller of an election is “a person who counts the votes in an election, vote, referendum, or poll.” The ECS Tellers of Election recently met to do just that: verify our 2016 Society Elections.

ECS Tellers of Election as they verify the 2016 Society votes – from left, Prof. Craig B. Arnold, Dr. Ronald E. Enstrom, Mr. Norman Goldsmith and Dr. William M. Ayers.

Let’s backtrack a moment where we must first and foremost thank members of ECS for voting this year. Our second thoughts of appreciation go to the wonderful slate of candidates who are not only recognized professionals in their own areas of the sciences, but are dedicated enough to vie for ECS leadership. Thank you very much to Drs. Christina Bock and Thomas Moffat for considering the Vice President opportunity. Four years ago, Dr. Krishnan Rajeshwar was in this race to become an ECS Vice President which allowed him to now be on the ballot for the organization’s President. We extend similar appreciation to Drs. James Fenton and Douglas Hansen for competing for the role of Secretary.

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This spring, ECS will be coming to San Diego for our 229th meeting, bringing with us roughly 2,400 scientists, engineers, and students from around the world to discuss their latest research and innovations with implications for sustainability, renewable energy, and medical care.

To better connect with local groups who are working in sustainability and electrochemistry-related fields, as well as strengthen our connection with the San Diego community, ECS would like to extend the opportunity to be part of our Exhibit Hall by participating in the Local Lounge: San Diego, where local groups will be able to interact with our attendees and showcase their work.

In an effort to make our knowledge and resources more widely available, we’re also inviting local groups to join our community for the 229th Plenary Session on Monday, May 30 at 5 p.m., during which our speaker will be Christian Amatore.

You may also be interested in joining us at a special presentation on electrochemical solutions to global water sanitation challenges at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the following day. This water sanitation session will present the results of a grant competition that we conducted with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are pleased to offer a free guest pass for either of these session if you are interested (RSVP required).

If you or one of your group members would like to learn more about having a literature display in the Local Lounge, or our exhibit program in general, and/or to RSVP to the above events, please contact Karla Cosgriff at karla.cosgriff@electrochem.org or 609.737.1902 ext. 122.

Leveraging electrochemistry to beat diabetes

This year’s World Health Day focuses on diabetes and reducing the burden of a disease that affects over 420 million people worldwide. To put that in perspective, that number rested at 180 million in 1980. It is expected to more than double within the next 20 years.

So how can we beat diabetes? Well, electrochemistry has the potential to play a rather large role in halting the rise of this disease that kills 1.5 million people each year.

A pioneer in diabetes management

Meet Adam Heller, electrochemist and inventor of the FreeStyle and FreeStyle Libre systems; glucose monitoring devices that changed diabetes management technology.

“People were pricking their fingers and taking large blood drops,” Heller, ECS honorary member, said. “It was painful: get a strip, touch it, get a blood sample, measure the glycemia (the blood glucose concentration).”

Around 20 years ago, Heller decided to address the pressing issue of how to accurately, easily, and affordably monitor blood glucose levels. As an electrochemist, he took his work in the electrical wiring of redox enzymes and began to apply it to glucose and diabetes management.

“[My son] observed that if he pricks his skin in the arm, he can painlessly get a much smaller sample of blood,” Heller, who was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his efforts in diabetes management technology, said. “By pricking his finger, he got, painfully, a large drop of blood. So he asked me, ‘Can we make a sensor for such a small sample of blood?’ I knew that it could be done if I used a small enough electrode.”

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Image: Peter Stevens

Wild mushrooms have recently made a surprising (but not unwelcome) foray into the battery realm.

In a new study, researchers from Purdue University derived promising carbon fibers from a wild mushroom and modified them with nanoparticles to cook up new battery anodes that outperform conventional graphite electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.

(READ: “Wild Fungus Derived Carbon Fibers and Hybrids as Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries“)

Outperforming traditional anodes

“Current state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries must be improved in both energy density and power output in order to meet the future energy storage demand in electric vehicles and grid energy-storage technologies,” said Vilas Pol, ECS member and associate professor at Purdue. “So there is a dire need to develop new anode materials with superior performance.”

This from Purdue University:

[The researchers] have found that carbon fibers derived from Tyromyces fissilis and modified by attaching cobalt oxide nanoparticles outperform conventional graphite in the anodes. The hybrid design has a synergistic result.

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A research team, including ECS members Stephen Doorn and Erik H Hároz, has created flexible, wafer-scale films of highly aligned and closely packed carbon nanotubes thanks to a simple filtration process. In a discovery that was previously though impossible, the researchers found that in the right solution and under the right conditions, the tubes can assemble themselves by the millions into long rows.

(ICYMI: Get the freshman 101 on carbon nanotubes from nanocarbons expert Bruce Weisman.)

“Once we have centimeter-sized crystals consisting of single-chirality nanotubes, that’s it,” said Junichiro Kono, Rice University physicist leading the study. “That’s the holy grail for this field. For the last 20 years, people have been looking for this.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Climate CoLab is currently running a series of contests where people all over the world can work with experts and each other to develop climate change solutions.

The waste management contest is now open. We are seeking practical proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from waste and waste management that can be rapidly implemented, scaled-up and/or replicated. We especially encourage proposals that address national (e.g. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or National Adaptation Plans) and/or sub-national strategies to address the challenges of climate change and aim to help countries, states, and communities implement those strategies.

The Judges’ and Popular Choice Winners will be invited to MIT to present their proposal, enter the Climate CoLab Winners Program and be eligible for the $10,000 Grand Prize. All award winners will receive wide recognition and visibility by the MIT Climate CoLab. See last year’s conference. Entries are due May 23, 2016. Early submissions welcome — entries can be edited until the contest deadline.

Even if you don’t have new ideas yourself, you can help improve other people’s ideas and support the ones you find most promising. Visit the CoLab to learn more.