Created for the centennial celebration of The Electrochemical Society (1902-2002).

Since its foundation in 1902, ECS and its members have been at the forefront of the challenge to bridge the gap between electrical engineering and chemistry. The years that followed the Society’s establishment have been filled with innovation, ingenuity, and excellence throughout the field of electrochemistry. Take a look back at some of ECS’s most prestigious members and their accomplishments.

Ruben presenting his Acheson Award address in 1970.

Samuel Ruben
In 1918, Samuel Ruben, an 18-year old high school graduate, was hired by the Electrochemical Products Company in New York City. Bergen Davis of Columbia University arranged for Ruben to sit in on courses at Columbia and spent evenings tutoring him. Ruben went on to invent the dry electrolytic aluminum capacitor, the vacuum tube relay, the quick heather vacuum tube, a sold-state rectifier, and the balanced cell mercury battery.

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Tesla was known for discovering amazing things and then forgetting to write them down.

You know his name, but how much do you really know about Nikola Tesla? The writers over at The Oatmeal want you to be aware of all of Tesla’s glory, and put together quite the comic to demonstrate it.

This from The Oatmeal:

Over one hundred years ago, a Serbian-American inventor by the name of Nikola Tesla started fixing things that weren’t broken… Tesla’s contributions were not incremental; they were revolutionary.

Learn more about this underdog and his inventions and contributions to science, which included: alternating current, hydroelectricity, cryogenic engineering, the remote control, neon lighting, and wireless communication just to name a few.

Check out the comic here.

Although The Oatmeal paints Thomas Edison – Tesla’s competitor and often times rival – as “a non-geek who operated in geek space,” we at ECS are still proud to have had him as a member of the Society.

If you’re looking for more humorous renditions of Tesla’s storied past, check out this Drunk History rendition via Funny or Die.

Poster session in Orlando at 2014 225th ECS meeting.

The 2014 ECS and SMEQ (Sociedad Mexicana de Electroquímica) Joint International Meeting is being held Oct 5-9, 2014 in Cancun, Mexico.

Register now!

Besides this being is an international conference about electrochemistry and solid state science and technology; and a major forum for the discussion of interdisciplinary research from around the world; and the poster sessions; and the exhibits; and meeting old friends and making new ones … here are five other reasons to attend (feel free to add your own in the comments section):

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From the Energy Storage World Forum in London 2014.

Energy Storage World Forum – Rome 2015
Rome, Italy
May 19-21, 2015

The 8th Energy Storage World Forum in 2015 will take place in Rome and will include The 3rd Microgrid Forum and The 2nd Residential Energy Storage Forum.

This 3 events in one location will save you time and money and will feature over 25 Utilities/TSOs/DSOs and End Users such as TERNA, E.ON, UK POWER NETWORKS, EDF etc.

Find out more.

For speaking, sponsorship inquiries contact: emily@energystorageforum.com

Don’t forget the 2014 ECS and SMEQ (Sociedad Mexicana de Electroquímica)
Joint International Meeting October 5-9, 2014. Learn more.

We have been beating the drum about open access here at ECS for some time. This taken from Interface magazine over one year ago:

Commercial publishers have learned that the subscription-based model could be played to their enormous benefit, placing a further cost on the scholarly publishing system. There has been a proliferation of new journals being added to subscription packages, burdening library budgets with additional journals and without providing reciprocal scientific value. This has been coupled with the excessively high prices being charged by many scientific publishers for the dissemination of technical knowledge, and collectively the money now being extracted from the process is stifling scientific advancement. (Read the rest.)

(We noted when Tesla was getting it right, too.)

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“We’re now looking for higher and higher energy density batteries, and graphite [anodes] can’t do that anymore,” said Yi Cui, a professor of material science and engineering and leader of the research team.

A team of Stanford University researchers, including former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, believes it has achieved the “holy grail” of lithium battery design: an anode of pure lithium that could boost the range of an electric car to 300 miles.

Lithium-ion batteries are one of the most common types of rechargeable batteries on the market today. But most of the batteries—found in technologies like smartphones and electric cars—use an anode made of graphite or silicon.

Read the article.

Here’s the paper, Interconnected Hollow Carbon Nanospheres for Stable Lithium Metal Anodes, in Nature.

The Stanford researchers are using nanospheres, a protective layer of tiny carbon domes that protect the anode. Read research about nanospheres in the ECS Digital Library.

ECS members are now eligible for a special discounted rate on EL-CELL’s seminar programs. The first, a hands-on seminar on basic battery research will be offered November 6 & 7, 2014 at the EL-CELL facility in Hamburg, Germany. The second, a hands-on seminar on advanced battery research will be offered March 12 & 13, 2015, also in Hamburg, Germany.

Johannes Hinckeldeyn, Director of Sales and Marketing at EL-CELL, explains the strong collaboration with ECS, “EL-CELL wants to become the standard toolbox for all battery researchers. ECS is the global organization of Electrochemists and therefore our main partner to support electrochemists who want to achieve better research results. Beside our equipment, we offer special seminars for beginners and experienced researchers to learn how to conduct successful battery tests with our equipment. ECS members are cordially invited to participate and they will get special conditions for our seminars.” Please visit www.el-cell.com/service for registration and further information.

Just about exactly fifty years ago – this month, as I recall – I walked into the office of the chemistry department chairman at SMU and asked to become a chemistry major. It was among my better decisions. The fit has proven to be perfect.

(These comments were presentedby Larry R. Faulkner at the ceremony commemorating Honorary Membership in The Electrochemical Society for Allen J. Bard and John B. Goodenough, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, November 23, 2013.)

I have loved the science and its history. I have loved its relevance to the world at large. I have even loved the fact that chemists are workaholics. It’s notable, in fact, that when I went to see the department chairman back in 1963, it was about eight o’clock in the evening. The light was on in his office, as it was practically every night. While he didn’t warmly welcome my interruption, he still helped me – and Professor Harold Jeskey became an important mentor and a lifelong friend.

Read the rest.

From the Winter 2013 issue of Interface.

In the history of science and technology, there have been many instances when two or more persons have independently created an invention or concept at almost the same time, but for various reasons, one inventor takes precedence or credit.

(This was originally published in Interface, the ECS magazine. It was written by Jackson E. Harrar.)

Examples are the telephone, the integrated circuit, calculus in mathematics, and the theory of evolution. Once the invention or concept is introduced, further development soon proceeds along a single path. A rare instance is an innovation that was developed by two different scientists in two different fields at almost the same time, and then widely used for many years in these two fields without the investigators being aware of the other application.

This happened in the case of the potentiostat and the voltage clamp, which are basically similar instruments, but whose actual applications are quite dissimilar.

Read the rest.

Free postings for businesses.

For a limited time, businesses can post jobs for free on the ECS Redcat Job Board.

Here are some of the latest for those looking:

Group Leader in the area of Power Storage; Batteries and Supercaps
CIC Energigune – Alava, Spain

Lead Electroplating Application Engineer
ClassOne Technology – Atlanta, Georgia

Researcher – Lithium-ion batteries (electrolytes) (2065)
Hydro-Québec (IREQ) – Varennes, Canada

Researcher – Lithium-ion batteries (2064)
Hydro-Québec (IREQ) – Varennes, Canada

Postdoc – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley, United States

Electrochemistry Product Specialist 14-27
Metrohm USA – Tampa, Florida