ECS Mourns Passing of Nobel Laureate and Community Member

Rudolph Marcus

Rudolph Marcus, who was born on July 21, 1923, passed away on July 16, 2026. Through his long career, Dr. Marcus inspired generations of electrochemists. His contributions will continue to inspire generations to come—just as he did at the 182nd ECS Meeting, where he received the call informing him that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

On October 14, 1992, Dr. Marcus was presenting his second paper, “Electron Transfer Across Interfaces,” at the 182nd ECS Meeting in Toronto, Canada, when an urgent call, purporting to be from the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm, came into the office for him.¹ Rather than interrupt Dr. Marcus for what could be a prank, the office called the Academy. Yes, the call was real. However, Stockholm refused to say what they were calling about! (more…)

Akira Yoshino

M. Stanley Whittingham

A highlight of The Electrochemical Society’s record-breaking PRiME 2020 digital meeting was the live session honoring M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, long term ECS members and 2019 Nobel Chemistry Laureates. That same day—October 7, 2020—the Royal Swedish Academy of Science announced that Emmanuelle Charpentier (Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany) and Jennifer A. Doudna (University of California, Berkeley, US) received the 2020 Nobel Chemistry Prize “for the development of a method for genome editing.” (more…)

The Electrochemical Society honors 2019 Nobel Chemistry Prize laureates, John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, by the launch of a new collection highlighting their scientific contributions published by ECS. In addition, ECS recognizes their contributions in the winter 2019 issue of Interface, now available online.

Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino have been deeply involved with The Electrochemical Society—as members, authors, editors, fellows, meeting participants and organizers, awardees, and more. Their publications with ECS, to varying degrees, trace the history of the development of the Lithium-ion battery, the revolutionary invention for which they shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (more…)

John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, co-winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, delivered their Nobel Lectures at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 8. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the three scientists’ seminal contributions in the development of the Lithium-ion battery. Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino are longtime members of The Electrochemical Society (ECS); Goodenough and Whittingham are ECS Fellows.

The Nobel Foundation statutes require the Laureates to give lectures on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded.

John Goodenough had his pre-taped lecture delivered by Arumugam Manthiram on the topic of Designing Lithium-ion Cathodes.

Stanley Whittingham discussed The Origins of the Lithium Battery.

Akira Yoshino presented a Brief History and Future of Lithium-ion Batteries. (more…)