First, I want to introduce myself! My name is Amanda Squicciarini, ECS’s newest intern. I am a junior Marketing major and Communications minor at The College of New Jersey. I’ve only been with ECS for a couple of weeks but I already feel that I have gained skills and experiences that will help me further my career. But more importantly, did you hear we have SEVEN new student chapters?!

At ECS’s 228^th Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, seven new student chapters were approved, growing our total student chapter number to 54! Expanding is a focus for ECS, the more members, the more people who have access to the science. Our student chapters are especially important since they are the scientists of our future.

Here are our seven new student chapters:

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With our 228^th meeting in Phoenix just completed, ECS is calling for abstract submissions for our 229^th meeting in San Diego, California. By submitting an abstract, you have the opportunity to present a paper or participate in a poster session and are eligible to apply for a division-sponsored travel grant. Travel grants are intended is to assist students, postdoctoral researchers, and young professionals with the travel costs of attending an ECS biannual meeting. These grants are specific to each division.

How to submit an abstract:

To submit your abstract for the 229^th meeting in San Diego, please visit here.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is DECEMBER 11, 2015.

How to apply for a travel grant:

Apply for a travel grant after submitting your abstract by visiting www.electrochem.org/travel_grants.

The deadline for travel grant submissions for the San Diego meeting is FEBRUARY 12, 2016. 

If you have any additional questions please contact travelgrant@electrochem.org.

Poster session winners Andrew Akbashev, Axel Gambou-Bosca, Andrew Durney

How to enter the General Poster Session:

Students are eligible for the biannual meeting general student poster awards by submitting their abstract to the Z01- General Society Student Poster Session. To submit your abstract for the San Diego meeting, please visit https://ecs.confex.com/ecs/229/cfp.cgi and then scroll to the “Z-General Topics” section.

The 2014 Outstanding Student Chapter Award Plaque with Prof. Arumugam Manthiram (front left) and UT-Austin Student Chapter Members.

Did you know that ECS offers over ten different awards that students in your chapter can be nominated for?  These awards include division awards, section awards and fellowships. Each award has unique qualifications and deadlines. Learn more on our website!

Upcoming Award Nomination Deadlines:

Corrosion Division Morris Cohen Graduate Student Award – December 15, 2015

ECS Summer Fellowships – January 15, 2016

Battery Division Student Research Award – March 15, 2016

ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award – March 31, 2016

For more information, contact awards@electrochem.org.

The Brno Chapter’s participants at the 16th ABAF meeting.

The spotlight is on the Brno Student Chapter from the Czech Republic! The Brno Student Chapter was established in 2006. The focus of their activities is on batteries, electrochemical conversion and the storage research field.

On September 3, 2015, members of the Brno Chapter presented at the 16^th International Conference on Advanced Batteries, Accumulators and Fuel Cells, also known as ABAF. Proceedings of this meeting will be published in an edition of ECS Transactions. In addition, four members have submitted dissertation theses this year, which are scheduled to be presented and defended early 2016. Great job, Brno!

Want your student chapter in the spotlight? Send an email to beth.fisher@electrochem.org to tell us what makes your chapter stand out!

“If you want innovation, if you want to have engineers of tomorrow, you have to have science.”

Those were the words of Bill Nye the Science guy at the 2015 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision K-12 national science competition.

A group of students from West Salem High School in Oregon took first place overall in the competition this year with their prototype of programmable bio-scaffolding that could eliminated uncontrollable bleeding from open wounds in those who take blood thinning medications.

Nye has been involved with this competition for more than a decade. Not only does Nye hope that this competition will help encourage young people to value the importance of the sciences, but that it will also highlight the need for gender inclusion in STEM.

“Half the humans are girls and women, so we want half the engineers and scientists to be girls and women,” said Nye.

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Mike Zach demonstrating his novel NanoFab Lab… in a Box! during the ECS Meeting!

“What I do is simply help develop confidence in students.”

That’s Mike Zach’s mission with his exceptionally novel NanoFab Lab… in a Box!

Looking to inspire young people and help propel them in scientific careers, Zach took it upon himself to develop an affordable, self-automated, easy to use nanolab.

What Zach is doing is allowing students to understand complex science and have a hands-on experience in making patterned nanowires. Typically nanowires need a multimillion dollar lab to be produced, but Zach has streamlined this process in order to give high school-aged students all over the country a chance to immerse themselves in this seemingly limitless science.

“I’m just looking to get more students involved in electrochemistry… in the science,” said Zach.

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David Wipf talks about the ECS Podcast during the Bard and Moore Award Winners Dinner at the 227th ECS Meeting Meeting.

From undergrads to PhD students, ECS’s David Wipf covers the educational spectrum at Mississippi State University. His goal? Wipf wants to get more students interested in science by showing them the human side of scientists and what happens beyond the lab.

Wipf recently heard Johna Leddy’s ECS podcast immediately saw the value in it for his students.

“It’s great that students get to hear how these scientists started,” said Wipf. “They weren’t super geniuses—they just liked science.”

As a professor in analytical chemistry, Wipf is always striving to get his students excited about science. While guests on the ECS podcast—such as Subhash Singhal and John Turner—happen to be very prominent scientists, Wipif appreciates the fact listeners get to see the unique stories of the guests’ roots and early scientific career.

“The podcasts show that everybody could do it if they wanted to,” said Wipf.

ECS will be offering three Short Courses at the 227th ECS Meeting this May in Chicago. Taught by industry experts, the small class size creates an excellent opportunity for personalized instruction helping both novices and experts advance their technical expertise and knowledge.

Register online today!

Short Course #2
Fundamentals of Electrochemistry – Basic Theory and Thermodynamic Methods
Jamie Noël, Instructor

This course covers the basic theory and application of electrochemical science. It is targeted toward people with a physical sciences or engineering background who have not been trained as electrochemists, but who want to add electrochemical methods to their repertoire of research approaches. There are many fields in which researchers originally approach their work from another discipline but then discover that it would be advantageous to understand and use some electrochemical methods to complement the work that they are doing. The course begins with a general, basic foundation of electrochemistry and uses it to develop the theory and experimental approaches to electrochemical problems of a thermodynamic nature. Read more.

About the Instructor
Dr. Jamie Noël is an established electrochemist and corrosion scientist. Throughout his career, he has worked on corrosion issues in the nuclear industry and entered into academia through his position as a research scientist and adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Dr. Noël assists in training and directing students, carrying out fundamental and applied electrochemistry research projects, and teaching electrochemistry at the graduate level. He uses electrochemical and other surface analytical techniques to study the corrosion of nuclear reactor components and nuclear waste management systems material. He continues to refine techniques that combine electrochemical measurements with neutron-based materials science techniques.

Registration for the short courses has been extended through the start of the meeting.

ECS will be offering three Short Courses at the 227th ECS Meeting this May in Chicago. Taught by industry experts, the small class size makes for an excellent opportunity for personalized instruction helping both novices and experts advance their technical expertise and knowledge.

Register online today!

Short Course #3
Scientific Writing for Scientists and Engineers
Noel Buckley, Instructor

Are you a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow or senior researcher who would like to improve your writing skills? This course is for you! Are you a professor who spends time rewriting students’ drafts of journal papers? Then, send your students to this course or attend it yourself and learn how to improve both your own and your students’ skills! Good skills in written communication are increasingly important, whether you are in an academic or an industrial environment. The course is intended for scientists and engineers with an interest in developing their skills in writing scientific documents, including journal papers, dissertations, proposals, abstracts, and reports. Read more.

About the Instructor
Dr. Noel Buckley, past President of ECS, is currently Professor of Physics and the University of Limerick, Ireland and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Cast Western Reserve University. Prior to his shift toward academica, Dr. Buckley spent 17 years at Bell Laboratories where he played a key role in the development of epitaxial crystal growth and characterization of compound semiconductor films for high performance optoelectronic devices and earlier worked on the development of rechargeable lithium batteries. He has more than 70 research publications and has made numerous presentations at international conferences. He has organized many technical symposia and has edited ~20 volumes of symposium proceedings. He has taught a graduate-level course in Scientific Writing since 2006 at the University of Limerick and via webcast at five other universities, and he has taught the present short course at previous ECS Meetings in Vancouver, Las Vegas, Montreal, Boston, and Seattle.

Registration for the short courses has been extended through the start of the meeting.

ECS will be offering three Short Courses at the 227th ECS Meeting this May in Chicago. Taught by industry experts, the small class size makes for an excellent opportunity for personalized instruction helping both novices and experts advance their technical expertise and knowledge.

Register online today!

Short Course #1
Nanotechnology for Bioenergy: Biofuels to Fuel Cells
Shelley D. Minteer, Instructor

This course is perfect for those with an interest in biofuels and renewable energy. Attendees can expect to learn about the production and use of biofuels, the advances in synthetic biology that have improved biofuel production, advance sin ananotechnology that have improved electrochemical biofuel production, electrochemical uses of biofuel, and more—including fuel cells, enzmatic biofuel cells, and microbial biofuel cells. Read more.

About the Instructor
Dr. Shelley D. Minteer is most well known for her contributions to the use of catalytic cascades for anodic electrocatlaysis. In 2003, Professor Minteer co-founded Akermin, Inc. with her previous graduate student, which has focused on the commercialization of her biofuel cell technology and has moved on to carbon capture technology. Her roles with ECS have included: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Member-at-Large of the Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division, as well as being a member of multiple other Society committees. She is currently the technical editor for the Journal of The Electrochemical Society and ECS Electrochemistry Letters.