The ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship, a partnership between The Electrochemical Society and Toyota Research Institute of North America, a division of Toyota Motor North America, is in its fourth year. The fellowship aims to encourage young professors and scholars to pursue research in green energy technology that may promote the development of next-generation vehicles capable of utilizing alternative fuels.

2018-2019 ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellows

Professor Kimberly See, California Institute of Technology
ECS Battery Division
“Structural Distortions in Multi-Electron Cathodes for High Capacity Batteries”

Professor Iryna Zenyuk, University of California, Irvine
ECS Energy Technology Division
“Addressing the Activation Overpotential in Fuel Cell Cathodes”

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According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, crab shells and trees may soon replace the flexible plastic packaging used to keep food fresh. The innovative process involves spraying multiple layers of chitin from crab shells and cellulose from trees to form a flexible film similar to plastic packaging film. Once fully dried, the material is flexible, strong, transparent, and compostable.

Not only will these lifeforms become a source of sustainable and renewable wrapping, but they will also help improve food quality. Compared to conventional plastic packaging, the new technology offers a 67 percent reduction in oxygen permeability, allowing food to stay fresh even longer.

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Earlier this year, ECS hosted a membership drive that successfully recruited 167 new and renewed 89 members and student members. We know that recruiting is no easy task.

That’s why we are asking for your help!

ECS is challenging our members and student members to recruit a friend to become a new member starting on August 1, 2018.

We are giving away a 2019 biannual meeting registration to recognize the top recruiter’s efforts; the second place performer will receive a five-year ECS membership; and, the third place recruiter will receive a three-year ECS membership.

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The winner of the 2018 Canada Section Student Award is Shuai Chen!

Shuai (Sharon) Chen graduated from Lakehead University with an MSc in electrochemistry. She worked on fundamental studies of Pd based materials for hydrogen storage and purification. Her research provided a thoughtful guidance for commercial hydrogen purification films. During this period, she was awarded a travel grant from the ECS Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division and the High Output and Publication Excellence Award from Lakehead University.

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According to Research4Life, the Research4Life partners have announced their agreement to extend their commitment to free and low-cost access to peer-reviewed eResources to 2025. The renewed commitment means that nearly 85,000 peer reviewed academic journals, including the Journal of The Electrochemical Society and the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, available through the public-private Research4life partnership, will continue to reach research communities in low and middle income countries.

The program’s success in reducing the knowledge gap between high, middle, and low income countries has received an overwhelming amount of support from the partners, which lead to the extension, says Daniel M. Dollar, chair of the Research4Life executive committee and associate university librarian for collections, preservation, and digital scholarship at Yale University Library.

“Research4Life is a shining example of public and private organizations coming together with a shared vision of the power of information to improve people’s lives,” says Dollar.

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(Eric Wachsman will be presenting Safe, High-Energy-Density, Solid-State Li Batteries at AiMES 2018 in Cancun, Mexico on October 1, 2018.)

Behind the wheel of a ’68 Dodge Charger, Eric Wachsman discovered his passion for clean energy technology. He was a teenage boy in high school, and the open road was calling out to him.

“I just lived for cars,” says Wachsman, who serves on the ECS board of directors. “I could not wait to get my first car.”

So when he hit the road in his $1,500 hot rod, loaded with a holley double pumper carburetor, headers. “You name it.” He was thrilled. “That thing was the fastest thing around.”

However, life on the road soon came to a screeching halt.

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Delegates from the 6th Annual India Section School held in December 2017.

ECS sections serve an integral role within the Society. Many sections offer opportunities for members and student members to connect with their regional peers and host local symposia/meetings. Like our divisions, the sections help to serve the mission of ECS.

The Society provides services for sections to assist with marketing, meeting registration, and member recruitment. The services available are:

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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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