Pictured (from left to right): Mahsa Lotfi Marchoubeh, Leanne Mathurin, Isaac Taylor, and Haitham Kalil
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It is with great pride that ECS honors the winners of the General Student Poster Session Awards for the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego, California. In following with biannual ECS meeting tradition, awards recognized the top two poster presentations in electrochemical and solid state categories.

ECS established the General Student Poster Session Awards in 1993 to acknowledge the eminence of its students’ work. The winners exhibit a profound understanding of their research topic and its relation to fields of interest to ECS.

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 and second place winners receive a certificate in addition to a cash award.

The winners of the General Student Poster Session Awards for the 229th ECS Meeting are as follows:

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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!

Image: Ludie Cochrane/Flickr

Researchers from the University of Connecticut are pushing toward a hydrogen economy with the development of a new catalyst for cheaper, light-weight hydrogen fuel cells.

The catalyst — made of graphene nanotubes infused with sulfur — could potentially work to make hydrogen capture more commercially viable.

This development comes during a time where many people are looking to hydrogen in the search for a new, sustainable energy source. While hydrogen may be abundant, it often requires a costly and energy-consuming process to produce. However, if scientists could find an affordable and efficient way to capture hydrogen, it may begin to shift society away from the fossil fuel-driven economy toward a hydrogen economy.

The material developed by the University of Connecticut professors currently shows results that are competitive with some of the top materials traditionally used in these processes, but at a fraction of the cost.

The secret lies in the non-metal catalyst that has many of the same electrochemical properties as rare earth materials.

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Image: Kathy McLeod/Flickr

From televisions screens we can roll up like newspapers to see-through batteries, researchers are moving electronics toward a more flexible, more transparent future.

The most recent development in this area comes from a group that has developed transparent, flexible supercapacitors made of carbon nanotube films. But this development goes far beyond wearable electronics, with potential applications in both energy storage and harvesting.

“Potential applications can be roughly divided into two categories: high-aesthetic-value products, such as activity bands and smart clothes, and inherently transparent end-uses, such as displays and windows,” co-author of the study Tanja Kallio, told Phys.org. “The latter include, for example, such future applications as smart windows for automobiles and aerospace vehicles, self-powered rolled-up displays, self-powered wearable optoelectronics, and electronic skin.”

With the thin films demonstrating 92 percent transparency and high efficiency compared to other carbon-based counterparts, the researchers believe that further improvements to the supercapacitors durability and energy density could make the product commercially viable.

This week, The Moth podcast celebrated the world of science by going beyond the technical aspects to capture the behind-the-scenes stories. Listen to scientists and storytellers discuss everything from 8th grade science fairs to the Nobel Ceremony.

You can find The Moth on iTunes, Android, and through their RSS feed.

Listen to the ECS Podcast for more stories on the impact of science and the minds behind some of today’s biggest breakthroughs and innovations.

Please join us on Tuesday May 31 at 0700h for an invigorating morning run in support of ECS’s open access efforts.

The race winners (top male and top female) runner will each receive an Open Access Credit! This credit may be used to publish a paper as OA in either JES or JSS.

For more information on ECS publications, please visit the ECS Digital Library and the ECS online store and be sure to stop by the ECS Publications booth, located on the Sapphire Level of the San Diego Hilton Bayfront.

Looking forward to seeing you in San Diego!

New for the 229th ECS Meeting: Stop by the ECS Publication Booth for a chance to win 1 of 4 Open Access Credits! These credits may be used to publish your paper as OA in either JES or JSS.

Please stop by the ECS Publications Booth, located on the Sapphire Level (Fourth Floor) of the Hilton Bayfront any time during Registration Hours and drop off your business card to enter the raffle. ECS will be raffling off 4 Open Access credits during the 229th ECS meeting (each credit is worth $800)!

Questions? Please email oa@electrochem.org and we’ll see you in San Diego!

Image: Kyocera

A joint venture between two Japanese companies has embarked on building the world’s largest floating solar project.

The project is estimated to harvest 16,170 megawatt hours per year – enough to power around 4,970 households.

Not only will the floating solar farm – which will consist of 50,904 panels – produce a large amount of renewable energy, it will also play a major role in offsetting over 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually (the equivalent of 19,000 barrels of oil).

Japan is making the move to “floatovoltaics” due to the lack of open land suitable for solar farms, but plentiful water surfaces. Proponents believe floating solar farms will be cheaper to produce than their land counterparts due to less strict regulations held on water surfaces.

Image: Rober Couse-Baker/Flickr

Energy comes in many forms. From solar to wind, there are an abundance of energy technologies available today. But one village in Indonesia is using on very different, very unique product to power their homes: Tofu.

The remote Kalisari village in Indonesia has a vibrant tofu producing industry (over 150 tofu businesses, to be exact). To produce this tofu, a lot of water is required. To make just over two pounds of tofu, some nine gallons of water is required. That water, inevitably, transforms into wastewater and it typically tossed into a nearby drainage system.

But the village has found a way to make that waste reusable in the form of energy. By treating the wastewater with a specific type of bacteria, biogas can be produced. The clean, renewable energy can be pumped directly into households.

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