The ECS Lectures

At every ECS meeting, there is generally one technical session that everyone can attend, and that is the ECS Lecture. The Society has benefited over the years from invited lectures delivered by a series of notable speakers.

In earlier days, there were the Joseph W. Richards Memorial Lectures in honor of the Society’s first president. These lectures were presented annually and the texts were published in ECS Transactions.

The Richards Lectures were discontinued after 1958. In 1970, the policy of having an ECS Lecture open every Society meeting was initiated.


2022 – 2005

2022 | 242nd Meeting
M. Stanley Whittingham 
The Critical Role of Energy Storage in the Electric Economy and Overcoming Climate Change

2022 | 241st Meeting
Jeff Dahn
Modern Lithium Ion Batteries: More than One Million Miles and Possibly a Century of Life

2021 | 240th Meeting
Michael Hecht
Electrolysis on Mars: MOXIE and the Perseverance Mission

2021 | 239th Meeting
Rodney S. Ruoff
Carbon Materials

PRiME 2020 | 238th Meeting
Nam-Gyu Park
Perovskite Solar Cells: Past 10 Years and Next 10 Years

2020 | 237th Meeting
Harry Atwater
New Directions for Energy from Sunlight

2019 | 236th Meeting
Valerie Browning
DARPA Advances in Electrochemistry and Solid State Science and Technology

2019 | 235th Meeting
Koen Kas
Guardian Angels turning Sickcare into Healthcare

2018 | AiMES 2018 Meeting
Luis A. Godínez
Electro- and Photo-Electro-Chemical Generation of the Fenton Reagent. Some Approaches for the Development of Electrochemical Based Advanced Oxidation Processes for Water Treatment

2018 | 233rd ECS Meeting
Miguel Nicolelis
Linking Brains to Machines: From Basic Science to Neurological Neurorehabilitation

2017 | 232nd ECS Meeting
Steven Chu
The Role of Electrochemistry in our Transition to Sustainable Energy 
(VIDEO)

2017 | 231st ECS Meeting
Way Kuo
A Risk Look at Energy Development

PRiME 2016 | 230th ECS Meeting
Michael Graetzel
Photoelectrochemical Cells for the Generation of Electricity and Fuels from Sunlight
(VIDEO)

2016 | 229th Meeting
Christian Amatore
Seeing, Measuring and Understanding Vesicular Exocytosis of Neurotransmitters

2015 | 228th Meeting
Adam Heller
Wealth, Global Warming and Geoengineering
(VIDEO)

2015 | 227th Meeting
John A. Turner
Hydrogen from Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting – What’s it gonna’ take?

2014 | 226th Meeting
Víctor Gerardo Carreón Rodríguez
Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Mexico

2014 | 225th Meeting
Charles M. Lieber
Nanowires: From Nanocomputing to Nano-Bioelectronics

2013 | 224th Meeting
Mark S. Wrighton
America’s Energy Future: Science, Engineering, and Policy Challenges

2013 | 223rd Meeting
Michael Mayberry
The Frontier of Electronics Research

PRiME 2012 | 222nd Meeting
Tadashi Matsunaga
Cell Bioelectrochemistry

2012 | 221st Meeting
Bruno Scrosati
Will It Be a Tank of Lithium to Drive Our Next Car?

2011 | 220th Meeting
Mark Verbrugge
Energy and Personal Transportation

2011 | 219th Meeting
Jeffery Dahn
How Can One Tell if a Li-Ion Battery Will Last for Decades in Only Three Weeks of Testing?

2010 | 218th Meeting
Shuji Nakamura
Current and Future Status of Nitride-based Solid State Lighting

2010 | 217th Meeting
William Banholzer
The Future of Energy Conversion: A Perspective from the Chemical Industry

2009 | 216th Meeting
Martin Stratmann
Electrochemical Design of Novel Zinc Alloys for the Corrosion Protection of Steel

2009 | 215th Meeting
Federico Capasso
Quantum Cascade Lasers for the Mid- to Far-Infrared: Band-Structure Engineering, Beam Engineering and Applications

2008 | 214th Meeting
Tetsuya Osaka
New Developments in Electrochemical Nano-Technology

2008 | 213th Meeting
Sumio Iijima
Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Modification, and Characterizations

2007 | 212th Meeting
Bernard S. Meyerson
The Origins of and Imperative for Green IT

2007 | 211th Meeting
James M. Tour
NanoCars and Hybrid Silicon/Molecule Devices

2006 | 210th Meeting
José Luis Fernández Zayas
Science and Technology Policy in Mexico for the 21st Century

2006 | 209th Meeting
Ralph Overend
Renewable Energy: Progress and Promise

2005 | 208th Meeting
Nathan S. Lewis
Scientific Challenges in Sustainable Energy Technology

2005 | 207th Meeting
Arthur Carty
Successes and Future Challenges for Canadian Research and Development

2004 – 1989

2004 | 206th Meeting
Masuo Aizawa
Innovative Challenges of Bioelectronics

2004 | 205th Meeting
Richard Alkire
Molecular Engineering in an Age of Discovery and Information

2003 | 204th Meeting
Fritz Kalhammer
When Will We Be Able to Buy and Drive Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles?

2003 | 203rd Meeting
Gerd Binnig
Nanotechnology: The Path to Handling Complexity?

2002 | 202nd Meeting
Carol Jensen
New Chemical Technologies – The Dow Perspective

2002 | 201st Meeting
Arnold Thackray
Chemistry Is Electric

2001 | 200th Meeting
Bertram Batlogg
Field-Induced Charges in Organic Crystals: New Perspectives for Science and Technology

2001 | 199th Meeting
William D. Phillips
Almost Absolute Zero: The Story of Laser Cooling and Trapping

2000 | 198th Meeting
Carl Djerassi
NO on Electrochemistry

2000 | 197th Meeting
Stevan Harnad
Freeing the Refereed Journal Literature Online Through Public Self-Archiving

1999 | 196th Meeting
Kenichi Honda
Recent Progress in Photoelectrochemistry

1999 | 195th Meeting
Alan G. Miller
Aerospace Materials for the 21st Century

1998 | 194th Meeting
John Horgan
The Beginning of the End of Science

1998 | 193rd Meeting
C. Judson King
The Research University of the Twenty-First Century

1997 | 192nd Meeting
Paris, France
Laurence M. Peter
Many Hands Make Light Work: Recent Progress in Photochemistry

Jean Marie Lehn
Molecular and Supra-molecular Electronic Device

1997 | 191st Meeting
Gordon E. Moore
Fifty Years of Semiconductor Technology

1996 | 190th Meeting
Guenter W. Gross
Eavesdropping on Neuronal Networks with Photoetched Multi-electrode Arrays

1996 | 189th Meeting
Rudolph Marcus
Electron Transfers in Electrochemistry, Chemistry, and Biology

1995 | 188th Meeting
Janet G. Osteryoung
Opportunities at the Interface

1995 | 187th Meeting
Jiri Janata
Nuclear Waste – Scientific Liability, Challenge, and Opportunity

1994 | 186th Meeting
Robert Baboian
Electrochemical Technology and the Conservation of Sculpture – Cherish the Patina

1994 | 185th Meeting
David A. Hodges
Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing

1993 | 184th Meeting
Richard E. Smalley
From Buckyballs to Bucky Tubes: New Possibilities in Nano-Technology

1993 | 183rd Meeting
M. Patrick McCormick
Global Environmental Impact on Volcanic Eruptions

1992 | 182nd Meeting
Peter Morand
Energy and the Environment – What Are the Options?

1992 | 181st Meeting
George E. Brown, Jr.
Government Initiatives in Material Science

1991 | 180th Meeting
1. L. Pearce Williams
Michael Faraday, A Biography

2. Sir John Meurig
Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution

3. Neil W. Ashcroft
Cause and Chance, and the Future Direction of Condensed Matter Science

4. Adam Heller
On the Impact of Electrochemistry on Biomedicine and the Environment

1991 | 179th Meeting
Frederick M. Bernthal
The Strategic Importance of Science and Technology in the 21st Century

1990 | 178th Meeting
Terry Cole
Electrochemical Technology in the Space Program

1990 | 177th Meeting
Hugh Wynne-Edwards
The Future is Electric

1989 | 176th Meeting
Allen J. Bard
The Limits of Electrochemistry

1989 | 175th Meeting
William G. Ouchi
The Logic of Joint Research and Development

1988 – 1970

1988 | 174th Meeting
Ralph E. Gomory
Learning from the Product Cycle

1988 | 173rd Meeting
Robert J. Cava
High Temperature Superconductivity: What is Understood, What is Mystery

1987 | 172nd Meeting
Robert C. Eberhart
Biocompatible Chemical Sensors: Progress and Problems

1987 | 171st Meeting
Arnold Thackray
What’s Past is Prologue: Two-Hundred Years of Chemistry in America

1986 | 170th Meeting
Charles F. Drexel
Semiconductor Processing Equipment, Technology Forecast

1986 | 169th Meeting
William A. Edelstein
NMR Imaging – Medical and Technical Applications

1985 | 168th Meeting
J. Stuart Fordyce
Space Station: Present and Future

1985 | 167th Meeting
Yoshiyuki Takeishi
Present and Future VSLI Technology

1984 | 166th Meeting
Philip H. Kelly
Technical Challenges in Oil and Gas Producing Operations

1984 | 165th Meeting
Ralph E. Gormory
Future Technology of Computers

1983 | 164th Meeting
Alan G. Chynoweth
The Photonics Revolution

1983 | 163rd Meeting
C. Lester Hogan
VLSI Processes and the Future

1982 | 162nd Meeting
W. Dale Compton
The Role of Electrochemistry in the Automotive Environment

1982 | 161st Meeting
Larkin Kerwin
The Need for Constancy in Research and Development

1981 | 160th Meeting
Donald L. Feucht
Solar Energy Research at SERI

1981 | 159th Meeting
Gordon Moore
A Perspective on VLSI

1980 | 158th Meeting
N. Bruce Hannay
The Great Innovation Debate

1980 | 157th Meeting
D. J. BenDaniel
Energy Conversion through Semiconductor AC Motor Drives

1979 | 156th Meeting
Rudolph A. Marcus
Theory of Electron and Proton Transfer Reactions at Electrodes

1979 | 155th Meeting
Philip Morrison
Microwatts to Supernovae – and Up

1978 | 154th Meeting
H. W. Paxton
The Changing Scene in Steel

1978 | 153rd Meeting
Philip N. Sawyer
Application of Electrochemical Technique to Problem Solving in Medicine

1977 | 152nd Meeting
Paul Dean Maycock
Solar Energy – Can We Make it Happen?

1977 | 151st Meeting
Guyford Stever
The Current State of Science and Technology

1976 | 150th Meeting
Gabor A. Somerjai
Correlations of Structure, Composition and Catalytic Activity at the Solid-Gas and Solid-Liquid Interfaces

1976 | 149th Meeting
Vittorio de Nora
Recent Developments and New Avenues in Electrochemical Processing Technology

1975 | 148th Meeting
John S. Foster, Jr.
Energy – The Short and Long of It

1975 | 147th Meeting
William G. Schneider
Science and Technology – The New Challenges

1974 | 146th Meeting
J. Herbert Hollomon
Technology and the Changing Society

1974 | 145th Meeting
Arthur L. Schawlow

1973 | 144th Meeting
Harvey Brooks
Science and the Future of Economic Growth

1973 | 143rd Meeting
Arthur M. Bueche
Energy Options

1972 | 142nd Meeting
Bernd T. Matthias
What This Country Needs is a Good Battery, In the Meantime

1972 | 141st Meeting
John D. Hoffman
Measures for Environmental Measurement

1971 | 140th Meeting
Arthur von Hippel
Molecular Understanding of Electrochemical Processes by Ice Research

1971 | 139th Meeting
Frederick Seitz
Science and the University

1970 | 138th Meeting
Nathan E. Promisel
The Scientific Society and National Materials Problems

1970 | 137th Meeting
Leo Brewer
Electrons – The Universal Glue


Joseph W. Richards Memorial Lecture

1932
John A. Mathews
The Electric Furnace and the Alloy Age

1933
R. S. Hutton
Faraday and His Electrochemical Researches

1934
S. Landis, Joseph W. Richards
The Teacher – The Industry

1936
Karl K. Darrow
Electricity in Gases

1938
Charles H. Herty
The Utilization of Southern Pine

1939
Bradley Stoughton
Modern Marvels of Electrometallurgy

1941
Vladimir K. Zworykin
The Electron Microscope

1943
B. D. Saklatwalla
Thermal Reactions in Ferro-Alloy Metallurgy, the Basis of Alloy Steel Development

1946
Steward J. Lloyd
Freedom in Science

1949
Oliver W. Storey
Research in Industry – Is Government Antagonistic to It?

1951
J. O’M. Bockris
Electrochemical Overpotential

1953
William Shockley
Transistor Physics

1958
Abner Brenner
Electrolysis of Nonaqueous Solutions