Michael Hecht responds to ECS Lecture questions

Michael H. Hecht delivered the ECS Lecture, Electrolysis on Mars: MOXIE and the Perseverance Mission, at the Plenary Session of the 240th ECS Meeting on October 11, 2021. Answers to questions posed during his lecture follow.

Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Michael Hecht is the Associate Director for Research Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Haystack Observatory. Since 2013, he has been Principal Investigator for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument on NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover (Perseverance) mission, a technology demonstrator to validate the instrumentation and methodology to produce large quantities of oxygen from the Martian carbon dioxide atmosphere using solid oxide electrolysis (SOXE). From September 2019 to August 2020, Professor Hecht served as Deputy Project Director for the Event Horizon Telescope, the consortium that in 2019 delivered the first image of a black hole. His diverse experiences span planetary missions, observational astrophysics, space instrument and SmallSat development, planetary science, and project, program, and line management. Prior to joining MIT, he worked for 30 years at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), developing instrumentation for planetary missions. There he achieved the designation of Senior Research Scientist. At JPL, he served as Principal Investigator and Instrument Manager for the MECA (Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer) instrument on the Phoenix Mars mission. MECA operated through the summer of 2009, with major findings in microscopy, the physical chemistry of water in soil, and notably, in aqueous soil chemistry using electrochemical methods. 

Prof. Hecht received his PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford University in 1982 after completing his BA in Physics at Princeton University and MS at MIT. His research has garnered numerous awards including the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and 1990 Lew Allen Award for Excellence. His h-index is 51 with over 11,500 citations. (more…)

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Almost two years after approving the charter for ECS Sensors Plus (ECS’s new gold open access journal scheduled to begin accepting submission in 2022), The Electrochemical Society Board of Directors approved the appointment of Dr. Ajit Khosla of Yamagata University, Japan, as the Founding Editor-in-Chief (EIC).

Ajit Khosla

Dr. Khosla has been a valued member of ECS for over 11 years, actively engaging with activities to move forward ECS’s mission. His service includes, but is certainly not limited to, Technical Editor of the Sensors Technical Interest Area for the Journal of The Electrochemical Society and ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology; Chair of the ECS Sensors Division; member of the Symposium Planning Advisory Board; Editor of the very popular JES Focus Issue on Sensor Reviews; Editor of the forthcoming JES Focus Issue on Women in Electrochemistry; and he is currently in the editorial stage of a book to be added to the ECS Monograph series in 2022.

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The Society congratulates Eric D. Wachsman, President of The Electrochemical Society, for his recent appointment as Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland (UMD), where he is Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute and Crentz Centennial Chair in Energy Research, with appointments in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.

The formal title of Distinguished University Professor, the highest appointment UMD bestows on a tenured faculty member, is accompanied by an annual honorarium to support the awardee’s professional activities. Awarded to a limited number of UMD’s most accomplished professors each year, the title recognizes not just excellence, but also impact and significant contributions to the nominee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice.

An active and committed ECS member since 1989, Wachsman became President of The Electrochemical Society in June 2021. A Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and American Ceramic Society, he holds 35 patents in battery and fuel cell technologies and has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers. Wachsman received the 2017 ECS Carl Wagner Award, 2014 Sir William Grove Award (International Association for Hydrogen Energy), 2014 Pfeil Award (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining), 2012 Fuel Cell Seminar Award, and 2012 ECS High Temperature Materials Division Outstanding Achievement Award. Wachsman will preside over the 240th ECS Meeting from October 10-14, 2021.

Photo: The U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy has declared September the month to celebrate the importance of STEM education in building a better future for us all. ECS thanks its many members whose careers are dedicated to advancing science education around the world. All our members are invited to support STEMtember. (more…)