ECS’s Europe Section is now offering a travel grant to students presenting their papers at ECS biannual meetings. While there are over ten different divisions that offer travel grants, the Europe Section is the only section currently offering travel grants to students.

228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix attendees picking up their travel grant checks.

This grant will be offered to up to four students per biannual meeting that are enrolled in a graduate or upper level undergraduate program at, or be recent (within 12 months) graduates from, an institution in Europe. The attending student must also present an oral or poster presentation in a symposium sponsored or co-sponsored by ECS. Head over to our website for the complete terms of reference for this award.

The deadline to apply for a travel grant for the 229^th ECS Meeting in San Diego is February 12, 2016.

Why wait? Apply today!

The University of Utah student chapter at their first meeting, held less than one month ago.
Image: Tao Wang

While the newly established University of Utah student chapter may just be getting off the ground, the group has big plans for the coming months. From outreach to collaboration to discovering new information, leadership of the new student chapter hopes that it will create both a sense of community and a forum for the exchange of knowledge.

“The student chapter is actually really good for the student population here because there’s not a lot of community involvement type activities for graduate students.” says Sara Koepke, chair of the University of Utah student chapter. “Moving in this direction is a really positive thing.”

For Koepke, outreach and scientific communication will play a large role in the direction of the student chapter. One of the first activities of the student chapter will be a professional development workshop, focusing on presentation skills for the communication of scientific research. The group also plans to begin outreach to schools, going to areas with the greatest need and presenting live demonstrations and practical lessons.

“The more people that know how important science is, the more likely that you’re going to have people willing to vote for such things as funding of the National Science Foundation or any other political movement that is necessary for the sciences,” says Koepke, currently a graduate student at the Minteer Research Group.

Additionally, Koepke believes that this type of outreach has the potential to inspire young students to pursue the sciences.

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Bor Yann Liaw is a respected battery-related researcher, working in advanced power sources and energy storage systems at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. He has recently been appointed to the ECS Electrochemical Science & Technology (EST) Editorial Board as an Associate Editor for a two year-term, concentrating in Batteries & Energy Storage.

What do you hope to accomplish in your new role as the EST Editorial Board Assistant Editor?
I think that the impact of the journal is very high, but we need to have more people get involved. I am hoping to promote high-quality papers to be submitted to the journal and be part of the effort to promote the awareness of the journal.

What type of expertise do you bring?
I’ve been working in this area for about three decades, so I think that I have enough knowledge between the newer developments of materials, especially in the nano area, versus the most traditional and classic framework of electrochemistry. We’ll see whether we can bridge the technology gap between the two sets of skills into a more coherent framework, so we understand how the materials in a nanoscale can relate to the classical models or understandings for the electrochemistry.

What are the practical applications regarding your research in sugar-air batteries?
Recently we were working with farmers in Hawaii. We have a lot of papaya that are not marketable, which means they look ugly and are not really sellable. We can take those papaya and grind them up and take the juice and put it into a battery and it’s worked like a charm.

What initially got you interested in science?
My parents are both teachers, so I was inspired in the teaching and the education of possibilities of science. Another thing is probably more with my personality. I’m interested in exploring everything that occurs in our daily lives.

What is the biggest challenge going forward for clean energy?
We probably have to come back to more fundamental understandings and make things much easier and simpler so the cost can come down and the impact to the environment can be drastically reduced.

Meeting attendees discussing the research presented at the Student Poster Session.

ECS established General Student Poster Session Awards in 1993 to acknowledge the excellence and diligence of our students’ work. The winners demonstrate a deep understanding of their research topic and how it relates to one or more of the fields of interest to The Electrochemical Society. At each biannual ECS meeting, awards are given to students in two categories, electrochemical science and solid state science and technology. First and second place winners receive a certificate in addition to a cash award.

The 228th ECS Meeting Student Poster Session award winners holding their certificates.

For the 228^th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, the first place winners are Daiki Ito, and Xiaoxing Xia. Daiki Ito of Nagoya University, was the Solid State winner, and Xiaoxing Xia, of California Institute of Technology, was the Electrochemical Science winner. The second place winners were Kenta Machida of Kogakuin University and Subrahmanyam Goriparti of Instituto Italiano Di Technologia. Congratulations to all four winners!

In order to be eligible for the General Student Poster Session Awards, students must submit their abstracts to the Z01 General Society Student Poster Session symposium, and present their posters at the biannual meeting.

First place winner, Xiaoxing Xia accepting his certificate.

The submission deadline for the upcoming 229^th ECS Meeting in San Diego is December 11, 2015.

Submit your abstract for the San Diego meeting today.

On October 26^th, 2015, the ECS British Columbia Student Chapter held its 1^st Annual Academic Workshop.

The workshop was held at the Molecular Biology and Chemistry Building located at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. It attracted nearly 40 attendees from all different departments and disciplines at The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and Tsinghua University, China. Also in attendance was the Chair of ECS Canada Section, Dr. Michael Eickerling.

The attendees were given a detailed presentation from Dr. Andrei Kulikovsky on the topic of Physical Models of Impedance Spectroscopy for PEM fuel cells. Dr. Kulikovsky visited all the way from Germany for the workshop, where he is involved in modeling fuel cell components and stacks. Within the past fifteen years, Dr. Kulikovsky has published more than seventy research papers.

In 2012, he published a one-of-a-kind book called Analytical Modeling of Fuel Cells. This book is the first monograph on modeling of polymer electrolyte, direct methanol and solid oxide fuel cells performance. Dr. Kulikovsky’s current research interests include modeling of fuel cells and catalyst layers.

Dr. Andrei Kulikovsky beginning the workshop.

Attendees keenly listening to the talk and taking notes.

Congratulations on a successful workshop!

The PhD Student Poster Awards of the PEFC 15 Symposium held at the 228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 2015 were presented to (pictured left to right) Shuntaro Takahashi (Tohoku University, Japan), Yuji Chino (Yamanashi University, Japan), and Peter Dudenas (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) for their excellent scientific contributions in the field of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Research.

PEFC 15 symposium organizers, Thomas Schmidt and Hubert Gasteiger, are also pictured.

Twenty-three posters were entered. See them all here.

Some people strive to continue family tradition, while others prefer to cut their own path. Patrick Linford, grandson of prestigious electrochemist Henry Linford, happens to be stepping into his grandfather’s shoes merely by coincidence.

“If you’d rewind my life to last year, I had no idea what electrochemistry actually was,” says Linford.

Linford, current graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and U.S. Army Officer, was always fascinated by science and the technical side of things. Despite Linford’s grandfather dying a few years before his birth, their academic and career paths have many similarities.

More Sustainable Energy

Currently, Linford is conducting research in alternative energy—specifically, thermogalvanic batteries to power wireless sensors using waste heat.

“This work has tremendous applications in both the military realm and on the civilian side,” says Linford.

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The new, inexpensive catalyst could lead to the transformation of CO₂ into green fuel.
Image: Angewandte Chemie

On a global scale, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the number one contributor to dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing levels of CO₂ accelerate the devastating effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and a higher global temperature. In order to reduce these emissions, researchers are tackling projects from the implementation of a clean energy infrastructure to scrubbing CO₂ from the atmosphere. The researchers from the University of South Carolina are exploring even another innovative way to reduce CO₂ emissions by turning the harmful byproduct into fuel.

The team, led by ECS member Xiao-Dong Zhou, is looking for a way to harness CO₂ emissions that already exist in the environment and use green technologies to inject energy and produce fuel.

Making Green Fuels

While 100 percent renewable energy may be the ultimate answer for the energy infrastructure, it is difficult for industrialized countries that heavily depend on traditional combustion technologies to make that transition so rapidly. The implementation of wind and solar technologies on the large scale also raises question to grid efficiency, reliability, and storage.

One solution to this issue is by using technologies such as solar and wind to turn harmful CO₂ emissions into clean, usable fuels.

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Front: Ben Lesel, Sarah H. Tolbert, Clair Shen, Yan Yan
Middle: Ty Karaba, Terri Lin, John B. Cook
Back: Allen Liang, Erick Harr, Dan Baumann

With collaboration opportunities and innovative workshops, the newly established UCLA student chapter is providing both social and academic experiences for those involved.

Since its approval at the 228th ECS Meeting, the UCLA student chapter has been hard at work creating a robust, multifaceted group where students from all areas of electrochemical science can come together.

“Science, at the entry level, progresses much more efficiently when there is an open dialogue between researchers,” says John Cook, chair of the UCLA student chapter. “Electrochemical science cannot be done alone in a dark room.”

Cook and a collaborator began developing the UCLA student chapter very organically, with the idea that there needed to be a way to bring together the many groups across the campus working in electrochemistry. For Cook, establishing an ECS student chapter was the perfect solution.

“Our main goal is to bring people from different departments together to share ideas,” says Cook. “We want to create an environment in which chemists, engineers, physicists, and even business majors collaborate and share ideas.”

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The development of the silicon chip forever changed the field of electronics and the world at large. From computers to cellphones to digital home appliances, the silicon chip has become an inextricable part of the structure of our society. However, as silicon begins to reach its limits many researchers are looking for new materials to continue the electronics revolution.

Fan Ren, Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida and Technical Editor of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, has based his career in the field of electronics and semiconductor devices. From his time at Bell Labs through today, Ren has witnessed much change in the field.

Future of Electronics

Upon coming to the United States from Taiwan, Ren was hired by Bell Labs. This hub of innovation had a major impact on Ren and his work, and is where he first got his hands-on semiconductor research. During this time, silicon was the major player as far as electronic materials went. While electronics have transformed since that time, the materials used to create integrated circuits have essentially stayed the same.

People keep saying of other semiconductors, “This will be the material for the next generation of devices,” says Ren. “However, it hasn’t really changed. Silicon is still dominating.”

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