Student & postdoc travel grants
The Battery Division established the student travel grant program to recognize promising students in the science and engineering areas of electrochemical energy storage and conversion. The grants are intended to help defray the costs of travel, lodging, registration, and subsistence for students to present a paper or a poster at an ECS meeting in a symposium sponsored or cosponsored by the Battery Division. The grants are given when sufficient funding is available and qualified applicants can be identified. The grants are for a single meeting. The recipients may receive (1) a portion of their travel reimbursed, payable to the recipient at the time of the meeting, (2) a waiver for registration for that meeting, and (3) a one-year student membership in the Society. The recipient must attend the meeting and give his/her oral presentation or poster to receive the award.
K.M. Abraham Travel Award
In 2016, K.M. Abraham, a long-time ECS member and leader of the Battery Division, established an endowment for the division to give travel grants to two outstanding students from the fall meeting travel grant applicant pool. The K.M. Abraham Travel Award will consist of a check for $800, a meeting registration waiver, a one-year student membership in ECS, a ticket to the Battery Division Luncheon at which the recipients will be recognized, and a grant award certificate. N.B.: there is no separate application process for the K.M. Abraham Travel Awards; please follow the eligibility and procedure outlined below.
Eligibility requirements:
- Must be a full time student or a post doctoral research fellow at a college or university at the time of submitting the application.
- Must have submitted a paper either for an oral presentation or as a poster to the meeting for which the travel grant request is made.
- The recipient cannot receive a second grant from ECS during the same calendar year.
The application for the grant must include:
- Transcripts of all post secondary school academic work
- Record of the applicant’s achievements (e.g. publications, technical presentations, patents)
- Statement (less than 500 words) which describes the relationship of the student’s research to the science and engineering of electrochemical energy storage and conversion
- Letter of recommendation from the applicant’s research supervisor
- Copy of the abstract submitted to the meeting for which the travel grant request is made
To apply
Please visit the biannual meeting travel grant page and apply electronically using the online application process. Only applications using the online submission system will be accepted.
Selection of grant recipients
Recipients shall be selected based on their academic and research accomplishments, the overall quality of the research as judged by the material provided in the abstract, and the recommendation letter from the research supervisor.
If the number of qualified applicants exceeds funds available, priority will be given to first-time recipients, new research groups, and presenters in symposia where the Battery Division is the lead sponsor.
Upon approval of the recipients by the Battery Division Executive Committee, the Chair of the Battery Division shall arrange for the preparation of appropriate news release. Checks will be issued by the appropriate officer of the society directly to the recipient, as indicated in a written request by the Chair of the Battery Division to ECS Headquarters, and delivered to the recipient at the time of the meeting at which the student will present the paper. The recipients shall be notified of the grant by the chair of the Battery Division.
Young professional & early career travel grants
The Battery Division has established the young professional travel grant program to recognize promising young professional who are in the first five years of their appointments and engaged in research in the science and engineering of electrochemical energy storage and conversion. The grants are intended to help defray the costs of travel, lodging, meeting registration and subsistence for the young professional to present a paper orally at a meeting sponsored or cosponsored by the Battery Division.
Eligibility requirements:
- Within 5 years of their initial employment as a young professional by the time of submitting the application.
- Must have submitted a paper for oral presentation at the meeting for which the travel grant request is made.
- The recipient cannot receive a second travel grant from the Battery Division during the same calendar year.
The application for the grant must include:
- Brief curriculum vitae including a record of the applicant’s achievements, (e.g., publications, technical presentations, patents, honors, etc.)
- Statement, which describes the general area of research being pursued by the applicant of relevance to the science and engineering of electrochemical energy storage and energy conversion devices. The outline and statement should be no longer than 500 words
- Two letters of recommendation from established researchers acquainted with the applicant research
- Copy of the abstract submitted to the oral presentation in the meeting for which the award application is made
To apply
Please visit the biannual meeting travel grant page and apply electronically using the online application process. Only applications using the online submission system will be accepted.
Selection of grant recipients
Selection committee — At the fall meeting of the society, the chair of the Battery Division, with the approval of the Executive Committee of the Battery Division, shall appoint a chair for the Selection Committee, who in turn shall appoint two additional members to the committee. Committee members shall also be members of the Battery Division. Names of the committee members shall be reported to ECS Headquarters at the time of their appointment. The committee chair shall solicit applications for the grants by announcement in Interface, posting on the ECS website, or other means. The selection committee shall screen the applicants and make their final recommendations to the Battery Division Executive Committee. The number of grants for any particular year shall depend both on the availability of funds, as decided by the Executive Committee, and on the number of qualified recipients as recommended by the selection committee. If the selection committee recommendations are approved, the Executive Committee shall submit the proposed recipient name(s) to ECS Headquarters. In the event that the nominees are not approved by the Executive Committee the matter shall be referred back to the selection committee for further study and/or clarification.
If in a given year the selection committee decides that there are no qualified applicants, no grant shall be made that year. If the selection committee cannot resolve a tie regarding relative merits of two candidates and funds are not sufficient for grants to both candidates, then the tie will be resolved by the chair of the Executive Committee of the Battery Division.
If the number of qualified applicants exceeds funds available, priority will be given to first-time recipients, new research groups, and presenters in symposia where the Battery Division is the lead sponsor.
Basis of selection — Recipients shall be selected on the basis of past performance (30%), the overall quality of the research as judged by the material provided in the abstract (40%), and the recommendation letter from colleagues acquainted with research conducted by the applicant (30%).
Recipient notification — Upon approval of the recipients by the Battery Division Executive Committee, the chair of the Battery Division shall notify the ECS Headquarters and arrange for the preparation of appropriate news release. Checks will be issued by the appropriate officer of the society directly to the recipient, as indicated in a written request by the chair of the Battery Division to ECS Headquarters, and delivered to the recipient at the time of the meeting at which the recipient will present the paper. The chair of the Battery Division shall notify the recipients of the grant.
