Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
Dec. 16, 2016
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #8

Symposium B02: Carbon Nanostructures in Medicine and Biology

Focused on the biomedical applications and biological interactions of carbon nanomaterials, including studies in toxicology, imaging, research tools, sensors, therapeutics, bioenergy, and theranostics.
FEATURING Mike McDevitt of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Ardemis Boghossian of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Rana Ghosh of Texas University, Markita Landry of Berkeley University.

Selected papers on the most promising bio-application of carbon nanostructures will be invited to talk from the submitted abstracts.

My name is Andrew Ryan. For the past eight months, I served as a Membership Services Intern at ECS under the direction of Beth Fisher. Though I worked on many different projects throughout my time at ECS, my primary contribution was writing membership related posts for the ECS website’s Redcat Blog. A great deal of the posts written over the course of the past eight months with the byline “ECS Staff” were written by me.

An English major who graduated from The College of New Jersey this past May, I was absolutely honored to have the opportunity to write for a website with such a thriving viewership. It was beyond fulfilling to be able to apply my passion for writing in a professional environment.

But ECS was more to me than a writing outlet. It was more to me than a desk job or a resume line. It was a truly, positively rewarding experience.

Let me tell you why.

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Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
Dec. 16, 2016
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #7

Symposium D03: Plasma Nanoscience and Technology

Symposium Focus is on extensive and in-depth discussions in the field of plasma nanoscience and nanotechnology as well as developing the next-generation plasma-based nanotechnologies and applications. One of the motivations to organize this Symposium is an ever-increasing and more and more widespread use of plasma-based tools and techniques for nanoscale synthesis and processing. The Symposium is planned as an expert meeting that will provide overview of some of the most important research directions in this field followed by the comments and detailed discussions of the main challenges and strategic directions for the future development in relevant areas.

Examples include topics related to nanoscale synthesis and processing using low-temperature plasmas, ion beams, lasers, etc.; physical and chemical mechanisms of growth of nanostructures using plasma-based and related processes; present and future industrial applications of plasma-based nanoscale synthesis and processing; design of plasma processes, reactors, and associated tools and instrumentation for nanoscale synthesis and processing.

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This year marks the 25th anniversary of the commercialization of the lithium-ion battery. To celebrate, we sat down with some of the inventors and pioneers of Li-ion battery technology at the PRiME 2016 meeting.

Speakers John Goodenough (University of Texas at Austin), Stanley Whittingham (Binghamton University), Michael Thackeray (Argonne National Laboratory), Zempachi Ogumi (Kyoto University), and Martin Winter (Univeristy of Muenster) discuss how the Li-ion battery got its start and the impact it has had on society.

Listen to the podcast and download this episode and others for free through the iTunes Store, SoundCloud, or our RSS Feed. You can also find us on Stitcher.

Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
Dec. 16, 2016
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #6

Symposium D01: Emerging Materials for Post CMOS Devices/Sensing and Applications 8

Symposium Focus on transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) (such as MoX2, WX2 etc.), IV/III-V based nanowires and TFET device performance, spintronics for next generation devices and sensing, as well as keeping its previous theme on graphene and CNT based device enhancement for post-CMOS applications. Integration of novel device concepts, transport and mobility enhancement related mechanisms; thermal behavior of graphene, and carbon-based devices including thermal transport, thermal conductivity, and heat transfer management in devices and nanostructures, sensing or backend interconnect applications; advanced materials for charge and non-charge based device application: resistance change materials encompassing logic, memory, or optical applications.

By: Sudeep Pasricha, Colorado State University

American mining production increased earlier this decade, as industry sought to reduce its reliance on other countries for key minerals such as coal for energy and rare-earth metals for use in consumer electronics. But mining is dangerous – working underground carries risks of explosions, fires, flooding and dangerous concentrations of poisonous gases.

Mine accidents have killed tens of thousands of mine workers worldwide in just the past decade. Most of these accidents occurred in structurally diverse underground mines with extensive labyrinths of interconnected tunnels. As mining progresses, workers move machinery around, which creates a continually changing environment. This makes search and rescue efforts even more complicated than they might otherwise be.

To address these dangers, U.S. federal regulations require mine operators to monitor levels of methane, carbon monoxide, smoke and oxygen – and to warn miners of possible danger due to air poisoning, flood, fire or explosions. In addition, mining companies must have accident-response plans that include systems with two key capabilities: enabling two-way communications between miners trapped underground and rescuers on the surface, and tracking individual miners so responders can know where they need to dig.

So far, efforts to design systems that are both reliable and resilient when disaster strikes have run into significant roadblocks. My research group’s work is aimed at enhancing commercially available smartphones and wireless network equipment with software and hardware innovations to create a system that is straightforward and relatively simple to operate.

Existing connections

The past decade has seen several efforts to develop monitoring and emergency communication systems, which generally can be classified into three types: through-the-wire, through-the-Earth and through-the-air. Each has different flaws that make them less than ideal options.

Wired systems use coaxial cables or optical fibers to connect monitoring and communications equipment throughout the mine and on the surface. But these are costly and vulnerable to damage from fires and tunnel collapses. Imagine, for example, if a wall collapse cut off a room from its connecting tunnels: Chances are the cable in those tunnels would be damaged too.

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Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
Dec. 16, 2016
Submit today!

Topic Close-up #5

Symposium A03: Battery Electrolytes

Symposium Focus on presentation of properties of novel electrolytes for application in lithium-ion and (Or) post lithium ion batteries (LI-S, Li-air, magnesium). Special emphasize will be paid on newly design systems which are in the optimization stage for further development and up scaling. Basic research is welcome however applied studies will be preferred.

Confirmed Speakers
Prof. Steve Greenbaum Hunter College CUNY
Prof. Dina Golodnitsky- Tel Aviv University
Prof. Maria Forsyth Deakin University (herself or somebody on behalf from her group)

By: Vera Keller, University of Oregon

Galileo demonstrates a telescope to the doge of Venice. Giuseppe Bertini

While the Nobel Prizes are 115 years old, rewards for scientific achievement have been around much longer. As early as the 17th century, at the very origins of modern experimental science, promoters of science realized the need for some system of recognition and reward that would provide incentive for advances in the field.

Before the prize, it was the gift that reigned in science. Precursors to modern scientists – the early astronomers, philosophers, physicians, alchemists and engineers – offered wonderful achievements, discoveries, inventions and works of literature or art as gifts to powerful patrons, often royalty. Authors prefaced their publications with extravagant letters of dedication; they might, or they might not, be rewarded with a gift in return. Many of these practitioners worked outside of academe; even those who enjoyed a modest academic salary lacked today’s large institutional funders, beyond the Catholic Church. Gifts from patrons offered a crucial means of support, yet they came with many strings attached.

Eventually, different kinds of incentives, including prizes and awards, as well as new, salaried academic positions, became more common and the favor of particular wealthy patrons diminished in importance. But at the height of the Renaissance, scientific precursors relied on gifts from powerful princes to compensate and advertise their efforts.

Presented to please a patron

With courtiers all vying for a patron’s attention, gifts had to be presented with drama and flair. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) presented his newly discovered moons of Jupiter to the Medici dukes as a “gift” that was literally out of this world. In return, Prince Cosimo “ennobled” Galileo with the title and position of court philosopher and mathematician.

If a gift succeeded, the gift-giver might, like Galileo in this case, be fortunate enough to receive a gift in return. Gift-givers could not, however, predict what form it would take, and they might find themselves burdened with offers they couldn’t refuse. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), the great Danish Renaissance astronomer, received everything from cash to chemical secrets, exotic animals and islands in return for his discoveries.

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In 2005, the number of electric vehicles on the road could be measured in the hundreds. Over the years, researchers have made technological leaps in the field of EVs. Now, we’ve exceeded a global threshold of one million EVs, and the demand continues to grow.

However, the ultimate success and growth of the EV hinges on battery technology. With some scientists stating that convention Li-ion batteries are approaching their theoretical energy density limits, researchers have begun exploring new energy storage technologies.

ECS member Qiang Zhang is one researcher focusing on technologies beyond Li-ion, specifically focusing on lithium sulfur batteries in a recently published paper.

“The lithium sulfur battery is recognized as a promising alternative for its intercalation chemistry counterparts,” Zhang says. “It possesses a theoretical energy density of ~2600 Wh kg-1 and provides a theoretical capacity of 1672 mAh g−1 through multi-electron redox reactions. Additionally, valuable characteristics like high natural abundance, low cost and environmental friendliness of sulfur have lent competitive edges to the lithium sulfur battery.”

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