An ECS editor recently shared a peculiar, but not uncommon, experience in the world of publication. He and a colleague were chatting, when she began to share details of a recent experience she had. She had been invited to speak at an international conference in Europe. Before she accepted, she looked at the plenary speaker, who was advertised extensively, and was a Novel Laureate. She was told the registration fee of $800 and travel expenses would not be covered, however, after reviewing the event, she decided to accept. When she arrived, she soon realized the only “name” person at the meeting was the Nobel Laureate and attendance was very low.

According to Physics Today, it’s not unusual for speakers invited to give keynote addresses to be tricked for the organizer’s profit.

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Nineteen sixty-eight marked a year of tragedy but also of transformation. It may be 50 years in our past, but what occurred that year is still very much alive with us today. Here are our top 5 reasons why the scientific advances of that year are super “groovy” in our book:

5. Patent for the jacuzzi whirlpool hot tub granted

Roy Jacuzzi realized early on that the market for leisure and fitness was a growing one. He set out to create a bathtub that allowed enough room to offer “a relaxing soak,” according to Jacuzzi Inc.’s company history page. With that, the first bathtub with a built-in whirlpool system was born. The laid-back culture of California in the 1970s turned out to be the perfect launching ground for the now widely appreciated and known jacuzzi.

4. Apollo 8 is the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon

Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, and Frank Borman became the first human beings to orbit another world. According to NASA, on Christmas Eve 1968 the three men were the first to orbit the moon and see  Earth as a whole planet. With that, Jim Lovell confirmed, “there is a Santa Claus.”

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ECS celebrates Krishnan (Raj) Rajeshwar, a professor, researcher, former Interface editor, and former ECS president, by honoring him, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, with a Journal of The Electrochemical Society focus issue on semiconductor electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry.

Learn more.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to fundamental studies on electrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry, and semiconductor devices.

Raj has spent a great deal of his career focusing in on the understanding and application of semiconductor electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry himself. His research also includes work in solar energy conversion, environmental chemistry, and more. It’s evident that Raj is passionate about his life’s work.

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Your all-inclusive reservation includes unlimited meals, drinks, taxes and gratuities.

Have you made your plans yet to join us at the upcoming AiMES 2018 meeting in Cancun from September 30–October 4?

Of course, the technical program is one of the most comprehensive in the fields of electrochemistry and solid state science, but you will also have many different options for how to enjoy your free time!

The meeting will be held at the beautiful Moon Palace Resort, a gigantic luxury resort located along Cancun’s Mayan Riviera and set amidst 55-acres of lush tropical foliage. Just minutes from the Cancun International Airport, it features a full-service spa, a 27-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a larger-than-life pool, and numerous restaurants and dining options, all making for an unforgettable experience.

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Jan Talbot (center) with Wendy Coulson (left) and Nicole Pacheco (right), Talbot’s graduate students.

One of the pioneers for women in engineering, Jan Talbot retired from the University of California San Diego on July 1, 2018.

Talbot was one of two women in her chemical engineering class at Penn State University. In 1970, when she started her program, there were only seven women and nearly 3,000 men in engineering.

According to the National Science Foundation, in 1973, 576 women in the U.S. graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Two years later, Talbot was one of the 372 women that earned a master’s.

After completing her degrees at Penn State, she became one of two women in her class to graduate from the University of Minnesota in 1986 with a doctorate in engineering and one of 225 women to earn that degree in the whole country.

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What was once known as the High Temperature Materials (HTM) Division of The Electrochemical Society has undergone a name change. It will now be known as the High-Temperature Energy, Materials, & Processes Division (H-TEMP). The ECS Board of Directors recently approved this name change at the 233rd ECS Meeting, effective immediately.  H-TEMP includes topical interest areas such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, and energy conversion.

For several years, there has been an ongoing debate within the HTM Division about whether the name adequately represents the topical research areas, materials, and division activities such as organizing long running successful symposia, which are primarily centered around high temperature electrochemical energy conversion and storage science and technology that HTM has been heavily engaged in for the past several decades.

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An online platform that had once offered a voice to scientists – to join in on debates and discussions of other scientists and inquisitive minds – may now be a thing of the past. Social news website Reddit hosts r/science, one of the world’s largest online science communities, which ran a popular Ask Me Anything Q&A (AMA) series that picked the brains of academics about topics like climate change, physics, and astronomy has come to an end. This was all due to a change in Reddit’s algorithm, changing how posts were ranked and making it nearly impossible to compete with the charm of cute animal GIF’s in the competition of upvotes.

The demise of the Ask Me Anything Q&A series is considered a major setback for the science community. The forum grew to nearly 19 million users, now left with no other platform that offers quite the same reach, accessibility, and engagement.

“With flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, and the rest of the anti-science brigade making their views heard in almost every corner of the internet, it’s a difficult time for those who value insightful discussion of peer-reviewed science online,” says Alastair McCloskey, a digital content coordinator in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield. Read his full article here.

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ECS Transactions 85(13) “Selected Proceedings from the 233rd ECS Meeting: Seattle, WA – Spring 2018,” has just been published.

Browse the table of contents in the ECS Digital Library, or purchase the full issue (available for instant download) from the ECS Online Store.

This issue contains a total of 149 papers from the following Seattle symposia:

A01 – Battery and Energy Technology Joint General Session

A02 – Large-Scale Energy Storage 9

A03 – Li-ion Batteries and Beyond

A04 – Materials Recycling for Energy Conversion and Storage

B01 – Carbon Nanostructures for Energy Conversion and Storage

B02 – Carbon Nanostructures in Medicine and Biology

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By: Yue Kuo, ECS President

Today I am writing this message as someone who has worked with Roque over the past 23 years and has benefited from Roque’s leadership and dedication to the Society.

As president of ECS, I want to celebrate and recognize Roque’s legacy. I am sure as a past ECS board member, you have appreciated all of Roque’s contributions. If you were able to attend the presidential reception in Seattle, thank you for showing your support.

Because of this deep and long relationship, I am respectfully requesting that you consider making a gift to the Roque Calvo Next Generation Fund.

The Roque Calvo Next Generation Scholarship Fund was created by the ECS Board of Directors to honor the 37 years that Roque served the Society. As we celebrate Roque’s legacy, I think back to all that he has contributed to the development of our student programing, including starting the student chapters and the first student poster session. Under his leadership, there are now 70 student chapters worldwide and at the last ECS meeting there were 288 student posters. Today, ECS offers 13 student awards and invests $300,000 per year in student grant and education programs.

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