Access to clean drinking water is something many take for granted. Crises like that of Flint, MI illuminate the fragility of our water infrastructure and how quickly access can be taken away. Even now, hundreds of millions of people around the world still lack access to adequate water.

Gaining access

But it’s not all negative. In the past 25 years, 2.6 billion people worldwide gained access to clean drinking water. This initiative stemmed from part of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 1990, attempting to cut the number of global citizens without access to clean drinking water in half. While this goal was achieved in 2010, there are still about 663 million without proper water and sanitation.

(MORE: Check out powerful images from the Water Front project.)

The divide

So who doesn’t have clean drinking water? Overall, urban areas tend to have greater access due to improved water infrastructure systems set in place. Access in rural areas has improved over the years, but people in these areas are still hit the hardest.

The major divide is most visible when analyzing the numbers by regions. Africa, China, and India are among the hardest hit, making up the majority of the 663 million citizens without access to water.

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Attention all current and prospective ECS members!

The days of expiration date anxiety and manual renewal hassle are officially behind us! Our automatic membership renewal system is up and running!

Here at the ECS, we are committed to making membership beneficial and convenient. We want you, our highly valued members, to be able to enjoy the rewards of ECS membership without experiencing the slightest modicum of excess stress.

So let us handle membership renewal for you. Please. We insist!

Enroll now in our automatic renewal system and fret no more about membership expiration dates and manual renewals. Let us make your life easier. Lessen your load to free yourself up and focus on what really matters to you as an ECS member: learning, collaborating, innovating, achieving, and freeing the science.

Want to set up your membership to renew automatically?

Step 1: Login and click My Account.
Step 2: Select My Memberships from the My Account Links menu.
Step 3: In your active membership, click Enroll Now and follow steps for setup.

It’s that easy!

Questions? Contact customerservice@electrochem.org or call 609.737.1902 x100.

ECS will be offering five short courses at the 229^th ECS Meeting this year in San Diego.

What are short courses? Taught by academic and industry experts in intimate learning settings, short courses offer students and professionals alike the opportunity to greatly expand their knowledge and technical expertise. 

Short Course #4: Hydrodynamic Electrochemistry Using Rotating Electrodes

Li Sun, Instructor

This course is intended for scientists and engineers who are interested in using rotating electrodes in their projects.  Examples of application include fuel cell catalyst screening, corrosion inhibitor testing, and electroplating.   After a brief introduction of basic concepts of electrochemistry, major kinetic processes at electrode surface are described.  Emphasis is given to mass transport phenomena in fluid dynamics.  These theoretical discussions are designed to help attendees appreciate the simplicity and the wide reach of rotating electrode techniques.  A significant portion of the course will be allocated for a hands-on demonstration when a real experiment is performed.  Specific and practical knowledge, often taken for granted by experts, will be disseminated so that a researcher new to this area can get started quickly.

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Join the Twin Cities Section this April for a hands-on, day-long introduction into the field of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)! The Introduction to EIS short course will be held at the Hampton Inn in Shoreview, MN on Friday, April 29th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (CT) and will be taught by impedance spectroscopy expert Professor Mark Orazem.

What is a short course?

Taught by academic and industry experts in intimate learning settings, short courses offer students and professionals alike the opportunity to greatly expand their knowledge and technical expertise.

Introduction to EIS

This EIS short course is an all-day class designed to provide students and the seasoned professional with an interest in applying electrochemical impedance techniques to study a broad variety of electrochemical processes. Attendees will develop an understanding of the technique, how to develop models with physical significance, and how to use graphical and regression methods to interpret measurements. Examples will include aspects of corrosion, biological systems, and batteries.

About the instructor

Professor Mark Orazem is a recognized expert on impedance spectroscopy and coauthor of a textbook on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Orazem is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida, a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, and recipient of the 2012 ECS Linford Award.

Registration Fees

* All prices are in U.S. Dollars.

Save $$ on registration and enjoy the benefits of membership. Become an ECS member today!

Pre-registration for short courses is required. The early-bird deadline is April 15, 2016. All course materials are prepared in printed format for registrants upon arrival.

Registration opens Monday, March 28, 2016!

Contact twincitiesecs@hotmail.com with any questions.

Attending the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego? Check out the five ECS short courses being offered at the meeting, including Advanced Impedance Spectroscopy, taught by Professor Orazem!

Proposal writing is often a complex yet critical aspect of research and development. Check out how ECS treasurer E. Jennings (EJ) Taylor and ECS patron member Maria Inman are simplifying proposal writing for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) applications at Faraday Technology, Inc.

Businessman, author, and one of the foremost minds behind the development of the semiconductor, Andy Grove, passed away on Monday at the age of 79.

Technological giant

During his three decades with Intel, Grove helped transform the chip-making colossus into the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors. He grew with the company as it obtained more and more success, acting as Intel’s president in 1979 and becoming CEO in 1987.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove,” said current Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in a news release. “Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.”

Many considered Grove as one of the giants in the world of technology, leaving his mark on everything from memory chips to the digital revolution at large. Without Grove’s contributions to the development of the semiconductor, much of modern life would be very different. Items such as handheld electronics, LED displays, and even solar cells would not exist if not for the semiconductor.

(MORE: Learn about how semiconductors shape society.)

Grove’s influence on ECS

Here at ECS, Grove’s contributions to technology have helped shape some of our divisions and topical interest areas. In 2013, the Society established the Bruce Deal & Andy Grove Young Author Award to recognize the best paper published in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology (JSS) by a young author. The award was named in Deal, another Fairchild employee, and Grove’s honor for a seminal paper that was published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES) describing the Deal-Grove model, which is used to analyze thermal oxidation of silicon in semiconductor device fabrication and has had a lasting influence on the semiconductor technology industry.

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In an effort to encourage young girls in STEM, Marvel and the National Academy of Sciences’ Science & Entertainment Exchange are working to creating scientific superheroes through the “Girls Reforming the Future Change” challenge.

In conjunction with the upcoming release of Captain America: Civil War, the two organizations have created a program for girls ages 15 to 18 to submit projects they believe could change the world. Through short videos, each contestant is encouraged to explain a STEM related project that could have a far-reaching impact globally.

The project will select five finalists to receive a $500 savings account. Additionally, one lucky contestant will receive the grand prize of an internship at Marvel Studios.

“I’m really excited to meet these exceptional young women who have STEM backgrounds and who maybe also want to be part of more of a creative- and science-based world,” says Elizabeth Olson, actor in the film. “And Marvel’s a perfect place for that.”

Learn more about the project at captainamericachallenge.com.

After the few years of dormancy, the New England Section of ECS is looking to engaged members in the region.

Section officers invite members wanting to actively participate in local section functions, including suggesting speakers and venues for programming, to contact Prof. Sanjeev Mukerjee, Northeastern University, at s.mukerjee@neu.edu.

First section meeting is slated for late spring 2016. More information will be distributed to section members.

To updated your section membership, contact customerservice@electrochem.org.

Not a member of ECS? Join, rejoin or renew today!

Image: Assianir

A recent pistachio recall is bringing Salmonella and other foodborne illnesses back into the national spotlight. The popularity of the in-shell pistachio brands recalled paired with the long shelf-life of the nut has health experts concerned for the potential of the foodborne illness to spread rapidly. Many are again asking: how can we better control food safety?

Shin Horikawa and his team at Auburn University believe their novel biosensor technology could resolve many of the current issues surrounding the spread of foodborne illnesses. As the principal scientist for a concept hand-picked for the FDA’s Food Safety Challenge, Horikawa is looking to make pathogen detection faster, more specific, and cheaper.

Faster, cheaper, smarter

“The current technology to detect Salmonella takes a really long time, from a few days to weeks. Our first priority is to shorten this detection time. That’s why we came up with a biosensor-based detection method,” Horikawa, Postdoctoral researcher at Auburn University and member of ECS, says.

Horikawa and his team’s concept revolves around the placement of a tiny biosensor—a sensor so small that it’s nearly invisible to the human eye—on the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables to detect the presence of pathogenic organisms such as Salmonella. This on-site, robust detection method utilizes magnetoelastic (ME) materials that can change their shape when a magnetic field is applied. The materials respond differently to each magnetic field, changing their shapes accordingly. This allows the researchers to detect if a specific pathogen—such as Salmonella—has attached to the biosensor.

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Christian Amatore has given a new direction to electrochemistry and has had a pioneering role in the development of ultramicroelectrodes worldwide. He is currently the Director of Research at CNRS and will be giving the ECS Lecture at the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego, CA, May 29-June 2, 2016. His talk is titled, “Seeing, Measuring and Understanding Vesicular Exocytosis of Neurotransmitters.”

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.

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