The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to work with the world’s largest scientific organization to ensure the free flow of scientific talent from around the world.

The latest response from AAAS comes just after President Trump’s executive order limiting immigration and travel from seven countries in the Middle East. AAAS’s CEO, Rush Holt, issued a statement emphasizing the need to keep U.S. borders open to scientists and students from around the world.

“Scientific progress depends on openness, transparency, and the free flow of ideas. The United States has always attracted and benefited from international scientific talent because of these principles,” Holt said in the release. “We know that fostering safe and responsible conduct of research is essential for scientific advancement, national prosperity, and international security. Therefore, the detaining of students and scientists that have already been screened, processed, and approved to receive a visa to visit the United States is contrary to the spirit of science to pursue scholarly and professional interests. In order for science and the economy to prosper, students and scientists must be free to study and work with colleagues in other countries.”

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ECS is sponsoring the Lithium Sulfur Batteries: Mechanisms, Modelling and Materials (Li-SM³) 2017 Conference, taking place April 26-27 in London.

This year marks the second Li-SM³ conference, which will bring together top academics, scientists, and engineers from around the world to discuss lithium sulfur rechargeable batteries, among other related topics.

The conference will include four keynote speakers, including ECS member Ratnakumar Bugga, who will deliver a talk entitled “High Energy Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries for NASA and DoD Applications.” Learn more about the speakers in the conference agenda.

There’s still time to submit a poster abstract. Deadline for posters is March 3.

Register for Li-SM³ today!

From electric vehicles to grid storage for renewables, batteries are key components in many of tomorrow’s innovations. But current commercialized batteries face problems of price, efficiency, safety, and life-cycle. The television series, NOVA, is exploring many of those issues in the upcoming episode, “Search for the Super Battery.”

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More than 12,000 academics, including 40 Nobel laureates, have added their names to an online petition condemning U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that institutes “extreme vetting” of refugees and limits immigration from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen into the U.S.

The petition cites the executive order as “needlessly cruel” and “discriminatory,” further stating that it could negatively damage scientific research in the U.S. and hurt the country’s reputation for academic excellence.

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Nominations Deadline: March 15, 2017

The ECS Battery Division is currently accepting nominations for four awards:

Battery Division Research Award: established in 1958 to encourage excellence in battery and fuel cell research, and to encourage publication in ECS journals.

Battery Division Technology Award: established in 1993 to encourage the development of battery and fuel cell technology, and to recognize significant achievements in this area.

Battery Division Postdoctoral Associate Research Award sponsored by MTI Corporation and the Jiang Family Foundation: established in 2016 to encourage excellence among postdoctoral researchers in battery and fuel cell research.

Battery Division Student Research Award: established in 1979 to recognize promising young engineers and scientists in the field of electrochemical power sources.

Please review the full award criteria for distinct application requirements before making the nomination.

The four Battery Division Awards are part of ECS Honors & Awards Program, one that has recognized professional and volunteer achievement within our multi-disciplinary sciences for decades. Learn more about various forms of ECS recognition and those who share the spotlight as past award winners.

Nominate a colleague today!

A joint research effort from Rice University and Kazan Federal University is demonstrating a new way to pull radioactive elements out of contaminated water. The researchers behind this study believe their results could go a long way in purifying the hundreds of millions of gallons of water that were contaminated after the Fukushima nuclear plant accident.

(MORE: Listen to the ECS Podcast with Way Kuo, nuclear energy expert and Fukushima consultant.)

This from Rice University:

They reported that their oxidatively modified carbon (OMC) material is inexpensive and highly efficient at absorbing radioactive metal cations, including cesium and strontium, toxic elements released into the environment when the Fukushima plant melted down after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

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June 26-30, 2017 – University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) presents Next Generation Electrochemistry (NGenE), a one week, student-centered, summer intensive workshop that explores the frontiers of electrochemical research. The program brings together approximately 25 graduate students with demonstrated interest and research experience in the field of electrochemistry, for an immersion experience with 10 renowned electrochemists from across North America. Admission to NGenE is competitive. There is no program fee for participation, and travel and lodging support is available to everyone participating in the program.

The program’s primary objective is to introduce advanced students in electrochemistry to research at the frontiers of the field, with an emphasis on the identification of the critical gaps in our understanding of electrochemistry, and develop innovative strategies to address those gaps through collaboration and critical thinking. To achieve these objectives, the faculty will explore these topics through lectures on cutting-edge research, complemented with a site visit at Argonne National Laboratory. The students will carry out collaborative research projects during the week, where they will be challenged to develop innovative research methods under the guidance of faculty mentors.

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Nominations Deadline: March 1, 2017

The ECS Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division is currently accepting nominations for the prestigious Max Bredig Award in Molten Salt and Ionic Liquid Chemistry that will be recognized at the fall 2018 biannual meeting in Cancun, Mexico:

Max Bredig Award in Molten Salt and Ionic Liquid Chemistry: established in 1984 in order to recognize excellence in molten salt and ionic liquid chemistry research and to stimulate publication of high quality research papers in this area in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. This award is unique as it directly coincides with the International Symposium on Molten Salts and Ionic Liquids that takes place every two years at our fall biannual meetings. PRiME 2016 marked the twentieth anniversary of the symposium, where Masayoshi Watanabe delivered “Design and Electrochemical Application of Ionic Liquids Based on an Understanding of Their Nature” as the keynote award address.

Please review the full award criteria for distinct application requirements before making the nomination.

The Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division Bredig Award is part of ECS Honors & Awards Program, one that has recognized professional and volunteer achievement within our multi-disciplinary sciences for decades. Learn more about various forms of ECS recognition and those who share the spotlight as past award winners.

Nominate a colleague today!

While not the only source of science, government funded research plays a huge role in the lives of many individuals. From something as simple as the weather apps underpinned by the National Weather Service to the Food and Drug Administration’s work on preventing Salmonella, this tax-payer funded research shapes lives and helps provide knowledge to make crucial decisions.

On January 23, word came from the White House that almost all U.S. scientific government agencies had been temporarily barred from communicating with the public via press releases, blogs, and social media.

It’s not currently clear how extensive the gag order is – with some reports saying that explanations of just published peer reviewed research are barred, while others citing a much more lenient scenario – but it is confirmed that almost all agencies, from the U.S. Department of Interior to the Department of Health and Human Services, received a memo restricting – to some degree – outreach to the public.

Even after the gag order was put in place, federal agencies such as the Badlands National Park continued tweeting on its official account with a stream of facts pertaining to climate change. The tweets have since been deleted, though the park did address the president in a letter on Huffington Post.

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As the demand for newer, faster electronics rises, so does the amount of e-waste across the globe.

E-waste refers to discarded electrical and electronic equipment, the amount of which has risen by 63 percent in just the past five years. Globally, it’s observed that the volume of e-waste has hit an astonishing new peak, totaling in at over 40 tons – seven percent of which includes communication devices such as smartphones and computers.

The challenge of rising levels of e-waste is a global issue. A report from U.N. think tank, United Nations University, shows that in 12 Asian countries, the volume of e-waste increased by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2015. Hong Kong, for example, produced nearly 48 pounds per person in digital trash. To compare, the average waste from Europe and the Americas is approximately 34 pounds per person.

Because Asia buys about half of all electronics on the market, the uptick in e-waste is expected. However, the infrastructure to recycle and the laws that mandate such actions do not exist in these countries. In the United States, however, states such as New York have implemented bans on disposing of unwanted electronics, posing fines to those who do not properly recycle their devices.

E-waste shows both great potential and hazards for the world. On one hand, it’s estimated that in the United States alone, the over $50 billion is wasted in the form of digital trash that can be recycled for alternative uses.

Additionally, e-waste – which includes components such as lithium-ion batteries – if not properly disposed of, could lead to substantial amounts of health-threatening toxins such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.