We’re delving into our archives with our new Masters Series podcasts. In 1995, ECS and the Chemical Heritage Foundation worked together to compile oral histories of some of the key players in electrochemical and solid state science. Now, we’re bringing those personal perspectives to life.

Today you’ll be hearing from Harold J. Read, a renowned metallurgist who turned his private workspace into a military metal shop to assist in work on the Manhattan Project during World War II.

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

Inspired by nature, Shelley Minteer and her research group at the University of Utah are looking for a way to merge electrochemistry and biology. With a little inspiration, Minteer aims to bring to life innovative devices that can be applied to anything from fuel cells to electrosynthesis.

“We’re looking at biological inspiration,” says Minteer. “As electrochemists, we’re looking at things in terms of the molecular biology of living cells and seeing how we can make a better electrochemical cell from that.”

Inspiration from Biology

The sciences of biology and electrochemistry tend to have many fundamental concepts in common. On the biological side, one can look at how humans eat and metabolize food in a comparative way to the functions of a fuel cell. Additionally, plants and electrosynthesis work similarly in the way they take in CO₂ and produce fuel.

“As a group, we’re looking to see if we could use biology as our inspiration to do electrochemistry, and that has taken us into a lot of different applications,” says Minteer.

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ECS would like to introduce its 2015 ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award recipient, Indiana University!

Indiana University Student Chapter officers and advisors proudly holding their award plaque.

The Outstanding Student Chapter Award is a prestigious award given annually at the fall ECS bi-annual meeting. An Outstanding Student Chapter recipient actively participates in the ECS community, hosts their own community outreach activities and lectures, and has devoted, hardworking members.

With over twenty members, Indiana University Student Chapter is led by Professor Dennis Peters and Professor Lane Baker. This group is made up of members from different research backgrounds, which allows discussion to vary and provide insight into the numerous fields of electrochemistry, including bioanalytical and environmental. The chapter has hosted guest speakers, including Allen J. Bard and Nate Lewis, on their campus to not only present seminars, but also give career advice.

The mission of the Indiana Student Chapter is to spread knowledge of electrochemical science to the younger members of their community. This year will mark the fourth year in a row that this chapter volunteered at Science Fest, where chapter members host an entire laboratory with hands-on electrochemical experiments. This coming year they will also add a research talk, open to all.

The Indiana Student Chapter strives to build a better forum for students with different backgrounds to share their ideas, host and conduct outreach activities, while furthering their professional development.

Congratulations, Indiana University!

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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The following guidelines were constructed by Petr Vanýsek, the Co-Editor of Interface.

Interface encourages submissions of news from student groups. Therefore, we try to keep the “rules” to a minimum. However, some guidance will help in preparing the material.

Timeliness:  Interface is published every three month, therefore a report on something that happened no more than 6 months makes sense. Waiting more than six months will make it “old news.”

Details: Be specific. If you describe an activity, state Where, When, Who.  Give the names of the speakers and other actors in the story. Double check the spelling of the names, both persons and places. Consider, whether someone may prefer to be referred to (in a publication) by Ms., Dr. of Prof., instead of a first name.

Formatting: Do not format your documents, except for paragraphs and italics, etc., if you need them. The text will be reformatted anyway. If you are submitting your newsletter, it is better to remove the layout. And please, do not embed pictures in the text. Give only the picture caption and send the pictures separately as individual files.

Photographs: They are fairly easy to take with modern electronics and we like contributions with pictures. They tell a better story.

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Every ECS student chapter is eligible to receive up to $1,000 USD in funding per year!

A great way to take advantage of this funding is to use it towards new member recruitment meetings and events. Increasing your chapter size with dedicated students is important because it can help your chapter work towards earning the ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award with fresh ideas and minds!

1. Consider having an open meeting a couple of times a year for recruitment.
2. At these meetings offer free food and drinks as an incentive to coming.
3. Offer a giveaway. A giveaway could be something like an ECS t-shirt or pen.
4. Bring in a guest speaker that may spark interest in your ECS chapter on campus.
5. Free food and drinks.

Most importantly, let them know what ECS is all about!

A couple of key benefits to joining ECS to focus on for recruitment:

• Eligible for student grants, fellowships and awards
• Generous discounts to present abstracts at biannual ECS meetings
• Networking opportunities
• Complimentary article processing waiver to publish an open access paper in an ECS journal

All of these incentives can be fully paid for by ECS with approval by submitting an ECS Reimbursement Form.

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!

From solar energy to biofuels to hydrogen cars—sustainable solutions have become some of the hottest topics in the scientific community. While much of the focus in alternative forms of transportation has been automobiles (see Tesla and Toyota), ECS member Telpriore Gregory Tucker is shifting his attention in another direction: electric bikes. While Tucker’s bikes hold promise for the future of sustainable transportation, they could also potentially have a much greater impact.

“I don’t just sell electric bikes, I actually provide people with sustainable solutions,” says Tucker, founder of the Southwest Battery Bike Co.

Inspiration through education

The idea behind Tucker’s Phoenix, Arizona-based electric bike company started back in 2010 when he began volunteering with the youth at his church. As a mentoring program began to emerge, Tucker volunteered to addresses topics in STEM education.

“One of my personal goals is helping kids. I’ve been in a lot of programs as a child to help me get to where I am now,” says Tucker. “Giving back is important to me because I see a lot of kids in situations I’ve been in or environments that I’ve come from where a lot of the time, you don’t get that opportunity.”

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