In September 2019, at the 16th International Symposium on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC-XVI), Symposium Chair Subhash Singhal presented a plaque from The Electrochemical Society (ECS) to Yukiko Dokiya, the widow of Professor Masayuki Dokiya. Also present were daughter Fumiko Dokiya, her husband Hironobu Dokiya, and their daughter Yoko Dokiya and son Masahiro Dokiya.  The plaque thanked the Dokiya family for their generous contribution in Masayuki’s memory. The gift made possible the creation of the Dokiya Fund of The Electrochemical Society in 2004. From 2004 to 2019, the Fund provided financial travel assistance to 128 Dokiya Fund Travel Grant Recipients to attend ECS and other related meetings around the world in their pursuit of electrochemical science and technology to benefit mankind. (more…)

Did you know? ECS awarded 82 students with travel grants to attend the latest ECS meeting, AiMES, last week in Cancun, Mexico. And, of all the presentations given at AiMES, 27% came from student oral presentations and student posters. We couldn’t have done it without your help and support! 

Your donations helped provide young researchers with the opportunity to learn and bring more value to their work, explore new opportunities and network at our international meetings. But don’t take our word for it. Take theirs:

Samuel Castro Pardo, a PhD student at Rice University in Texas, says because of his travel grant, he was able to attend AiMES last week and discover a solution he was looking for. “I’ve been struggling with a project for a few months, and a speaker mentioned something during a talk, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I think I know why my experiment isn’t working.'” Pardo is already planning for future experiments with this newfound information.

 

Raisa Oliveira, a PhD student from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Portugual, says she wouldn’t have been able to attend AiMES without her travel grant, as her supervisor doesn’t have the finances to support the trip. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be here,” said Oliveira. “I can be drinking coffee, look up, and say, ‘this is the person whose paper I read yesterday.’ I’m meeting my stars, my scientific stars.”

 

Matthias Künzel, a PhD student from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, says his travel grant allowed him to attend AiMES, which he finds particularly important due to its international reach. “I think people learn different in different countries,” says Künzel. “In Germany, we follow rules strictly. Talking to other people who have different views pushes you to approach things differently.”

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Help early-career researchers reach their potential!

Young researchers Guruprakash Karkera and Madeline Sciullo share what receiving the ECS travel grant meant to them and put in perspective why the grant is more than funding; it’s a gateway to the future. Here are their stories:

Madeline Sciullo, travel grant recipient

Worldwide reach

Madeline Sciullo is a fourth-year student studying electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida.

She says she realized her first time attending and presenting at an ECS meeting, which happened to be PRiME 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii, would be costly. But, she knew it was a meeting she had to attend.

“These international meetings are so crucial to the development of the field,” says Sciullo, of why she found it particularly important to attend the ECS meeting. “A lot of the work that I’m doing, nobody in the United States is doing. So there’s no point for me going to a conference that only has attendees from the United States.” (more…)

Dai Shen says the travel grant lead to opportunities.

The travel grant recipient shares his first-hand experience.

Meet Dai Shen. He is a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University and received an ECS travel grant to attend his first ECS meeting — the 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. Every meeting, ECS awards a number of travel grants to defray the costs of attending our meetings. This provides an invaluable experience for students and early career scientists and engineers.

Unfortunately, we only have the funding to support 52% of requests at AiMES. You can change that for future meetings by donating today! (more…)

By: Yue Kuo, ECS President

Today I am writing this message as someone who has worked with Roque over the past 23 years and has benefited from Roque’s leadership and dedication to the Society.

As president of ECS, I want to celebrate and recognize Roque’s legacy. I am sure as a past ECS board member, you have appreciated all of Roque’s contributions. If you were able to attend the presidential reception in Seattle, thank you for showing your support.

Because of this deep and long relationship, I am respectfully requesting that you consider making a gift to the Roque Calvo Next Generation Fund.

The Roque Calvo Next Generation Scholarship Fund was created by the ECS Board of Directors to honor the 37 years that Roque served the Society. As we celebrate Roque’s legacy, I think back to all that he has contributed to the development of our student programing, including starting the student chapters and the first student poster session. Under his leadership, there are now 70 student chapters worldwide and at the last ECS meeting there were 288 student posters. Today, ECS offers 13 student awards and invests $300,000 per year in student grant and education programs.

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AiMES 2018 in Cancun, Mexico September 30 – October 4.

The deadline for travel grant application submissions for AiMES 2018 is Monday, June 18, 2018!

Many ECS divisions and sections offer travel grants to undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and young professionals and faculty presenting papers at ECS biannual meetings. Applications must be received no later than Monday, June 18, 2018.

See who is offering ECS divisions and sections travel grants.

Travel grant applications are available to student/postdoc and young professional/early career applicants.

After reviewing the additional application requirements for your particular division or section, please contact travelgrant@electrochem.org with any questions or concerns.

NOTE: Applicants may only apply for a travel grant from one division.

We hope to see you in Cancun this fall!

Reutilizing carbon dioxide to produce clean burning fuels

David Go has always seen himself as something of a black sheep when it comes to his scientific research approach, and his recent work in developing clean alternative fuels from carbon dioxide is no exception.

In 2015, Go and his research team at the University of Notre Dame were awarded a $50,000 grant to purse innovative electrochemical research in green energy technology through the ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship. With a goal of aiding scientists in advancing alternative energies, the fellowship aims to empower young researchers in creating next-generation vehicles capable of utilizing alternative fuels that can lead to climate change action in transportation.

The road less traveled

While advancing research in electric vehicles and fuel cells tend to be the top research areas in sustainable transportation, Go and his team is opting to go down the road less traveled through a new approach to green chemistry: plasma electrochemistry.

(MORE: Read Go’s Meeting Abstract on this topic, entitled “Electrochemical Reduction of CO_2(aq) By Solvated Electrons at a Plasma-Liquid Interface.”)

“Our approach to electrochemistry is completely a-typical,” Go, associate professor at the University of Notre Dame, says. “We use a technique called plasma electrochemistry with the aim of processing carbon dioxide – a pollutant – back into more useful products, such as clean-burning fuels.”

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At the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego, we had the opportunity to gather the grantees from our Science for Solving Society’s Problems challenge, done in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nine grantees came to the table to discuss how ECS facilitated an unprecedented program leading to ground-breaking collaboration and real scientific advancements, while creating a funding opportunity which has helped contribute to planet sustainability.

Listen as these esteemed researchers discuss the global water and sanitation crisis and how electrochemical and solid state science could begin to solve these pressing issues. Today you’ll hear from Plamen Atanassov, University of New Mexico; Luis Godinez, CIDETEQ; Gemma Reguera, Michigan State University; Juan Pablo Esquivel and Erik Kjeang, CSIC and Simon Fraser University; Jorg Kretzschmar (on behalf of Falk Harnisch), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Gerardine Botte, Ohio University; Eric Wachsman, University of Maryland; Carl Hensman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation representative, and our host E. Jennings Taylor.

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.

Don’t miss out on your chance to receive an ECS travel grant this year! The deadline for travel grant application submissions for PRiME 2016 is just around the corner—Friday, June 10th, 2016!

Many ECS divisions and sections offer travel grants to undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and young professionals & faculty presenting papers at ECS biannual meetings. Applications must be received no later than the submission deadline.

Click here to view a list of the ECS divisions and sections currently offering travel grants.

Important note: Applicants may only apply for a travel grant from one division.

Travel grant applications are available to student/postdoc and young professional/early career applicants.

After reviewing the additional application requirements for your particular division or section, please contact travelgrant@electrochem.org with any questions or concerns.

ECS wishes all applicants the best of luck! Hope to see you in Honolulu this October!