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!

Attendees of the 1st ECS Student Chapter Munich Symposium at the entrance of the TUM IAS building. TUM is the top academic institution by student ECS membership!

Student membership is fundamental to ECS. Without student members—its inquisitive, innovative minds—the ECS would not be the thriving organization it is today.

The ECS has put down roots in academic institutions around the world that grow each and every day. ECS staff recently analyzed membership data to determine which academic institutions had the greatest presence based upon student ECS membership.

The chart below lists the top 40 academic institutions based upon student ECS membership.

Note: This analysis recognizes only student ECS members in good standing. Expired members were not taken into account.

Check out the chart to find out if your institution made the list!

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On January 22, 2016, the ECS Montreal Student Chapter hosted its first ever electrochemistry workshop. The focus of the workshop was the fabrication of silver-silver chloride reference electrodes, a staple of most electrochemistry experiments.

The workshop included a short presentation discussing the theoretical aspects of references electrodes, after which students could observe a demonstration. Finally, each student was allowed to perform the fabrication protocol and everyone brought home their own reference electrode!

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ECS senior vice president and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, Krishnan Rajeshwar, recently visited the University of Iowa’s ECS Student Chapter to discuss research, meet with faculty, and deliver a lecture on solid state materials.

Rajeshwar’s research touches areas ranging from the first demonstrated use of ionic liquid electrolytes for electrode stabilization in photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices to novel approaches to the electrosynthesis of binary and ternary semiconductor thin films.

Recently, his studies have addressed the use of solid state chemistry principles to the design of electrodes for energy conversion and solar fuel generation. Rajeshwar applied some of these concepts to his lecture, “In a Solid State Materials Chemistry Wonderland: A 40-Year Odyssey,” which he delivered to the ECS Student Chapter at the University of Iowa.

(MORE: Check out additional research by Rajeshwar.)

Throughout his visit, Rajeshwar met with the faculty from the university’s departments of chemistry and engineering, discussed science and current events with student members, and was hosted to dinner by ECS 2nd vice president Johna Leddy.

Learn more about ECS Student Chapters.

The ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award was established in 2012 to recognize distinguished student chapters that demonstrate active participation in The Electrochemical Society’s technical activities, establish community and outreach activities in the areas of electrochemical and solid state science and engineering education, and create and maintain a robust membership base.

Click here for complete rules and nomination requirements. Nominations are being accepted for the 2016 award, which will be presented at the PRiME 2016 in Honolulu, HI, October 2-7, 2016.

For questions or additional information, please contact awards@electrochem.org. Submission deadline extended through April 15, 2016.

Apply today!

The 2015 Outstanding Student Chapter Award Recipient 

The 2015 ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award recipient was Indiana University. Founded in 2015, Indiana University brings together members from a variety of research backgrounds such as mechanistic organic, environmental, bioanalytical, and materials, to promote interdisciplinary discussions about electrochemistry and solid state science. Led by faculty advisors Professor Dennis Peters and Professor Lane Baker, this group 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.

ECS is excited to announce a volunteer program for ECS student members at the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego, CA, May 29-June 2, 2016. This program was first piloted in the fall at the ECS meeting in Phoenix, AZ.

As a student aide, you will work closely with the ECS staff and gain first-hand experience in what it takes to execute an ECS biannual meeting. Take advantage of the opportunity to network and engage with meeting attendees, symposium organizers and ECS staff while learning how registration operates, technical sessions run and how major meeting programs are facilitated.

Interested in participating within this program? Click here to fill out your application today!

Please note, the deadline to apply is March 11th. The selected candidates will be notified the week of March 14th.

Benefits include a unique behind the scenes experience, networking opportunities, a FREE San Diego meeting registration, an ECS shirt, and a certificate of participation! For more information or questions regarding the application process, please contact membership services intern, Abby Hosonitz, at abigail.hosonitz@electrochem.org.

We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

Amanda Squicciarini, Membership Services intern.

My name is Amanda Squicciarini and I have been interning at The Electrochemical Society since this past September with Beth Fisher in Membership Services. I am a junior at The College of New Jersey, located just up the road from ECS’s Pennington, NJ headquarters where I am studying marketing and communications.

You have probably seen a couple of my blog posts, like 2015 ECS Outstanding Student Chapter or 5 Ways to Expand Your Student Chapter (if not, make sure you go check them out!). This was my first experience with Word Press and blogging in general, so it was exciting to see my work published on this blog that has 15,000 page views per month. Blogging was only one of the many learning opportunities I have had at ECS over the past four months. I was also responsible for creating student chapter newsletters, and processing their reimbursements. If you are a student chapter officer, you have probably received quite a few emails from me!

As you probably already know, ECS holds bi-annual meetings every spring and fall in places anywhere from Boston, MA, USA to Cancun, Mexico. During my internship, I was able to observe the behind the scenes hard work and hours of planning that goes into these meetings months before they actually happen. My internship had just begun a few weeks before the fall meeting, and I was able to see how much work needed to be done in order for the meeting to be successful. I felt that this was a special experience to be able to see an event of that magnitude being prepped and planned for (over 2,000 people from 46 different countries attended the 228^th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, USA this fall!). I even got to help by packing registration supplies, creating signs and making sure that the fellows were listed to be given their ribbons. Then after everyone returned from the meeting, I was in charge of organizing the data from the short courses to see if there were any ways to improve them for the next biannual meeting.

This internship was also my first experience in the non-profit sector. It was a great learning opportunity to be able to see how a non-profit functions. In addition, the history being endless within the society really appealed to the history buff in me. A task of mine was to scan in old files (as far back as 1903) so that the historic information is not lost when the papers are eventually recycled. Although this may seem like a very “typical” intern task, this task was essential due to the fact that members of ECS have been changing the world with their research for over 100 years. You may have heard of a guy named Thomas Edison… he was a member of ECS and I would say he changed the world! And hey, it’s pretty neat to be handling papers that are more than five times my age.

Overall, interning with The Electrochemical Society has been a great opportunity and I know I will be using the skills learned during my internship here, throughout my career. Thank you ECS staff and members for making me feel welcome, always being helpful and for teaching me something new on a daily basis. I could not have asked for a better internship experience.

Spring 2015 Internship Opportunity:

If you are seeking an internship opportunity for the spring semester, contact Beth Fisher, Membership Services Director, at beth.fisher@electrochem.org for more information. And no worries if you have not had much experience within the field of electrochemistry, I didn’t either, but you’ll pick it up quick and it is truly a great opportunity.

Dr. Chamberlain giving a lecture to the students and faculty at the IIT student chapter’s first event.

The Illinois Institute of Technology is one of ECS’s newest student chapters, and they held their first event on November 23, 2015. They received an excellent attendance rate of nearly one hundred students in addition to IIT faculty members and faculty from other near by institutions.  This event included the director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS), Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain, who is also the deputy director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR). Dr. Chamberlain hosted a lecture that included information and a detailed analysis on the innovation of battery technologies.

Following the lecture, a Q&A session was held, which gave the students and faculty in attendance the opportunity to address questions produced from Dr. Chamberlain’s lecture. These questions included the topics of environmental issues, the life cycle of lithium ion batteries, development of lithium-air batteries and even government policy and funding. The formal lecture and Q&A session was followed with refreshments and continued discussion. The IIT student chapter is extremely grateful to Dr. Chamberlain for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to come and interact with the chapter at their first event.

Congratulations, IIT Student Chapter on a very successful kick-off event!

With already half of the academic year complete, it is time to think about summer opportunities to further your career!

Hadi Khani (left), an ECS Summer Fellowship 2015 recipient and his advisor, Dr. David Wipf.

The Electrochemical Society has been offering summer fellowships since early 1928. These awards were established to assist students during the summer months, June through September, in the pursuit of work in a field of interest to ECS. In order to qualify for these fellowships, one must be enrolled in a college or university in addition to being a member of ECS.  Here is the complete list of candidate qualifications and award rules.

Up to 4 recipients will be selected for 2016 and will receive up to $5,000!

If you meet the requirements, apply for an ECS Summer Fellowship today! The deadline is January 15, 2016.

Success story
In 2013, Carlo Santoro received the F.M. Beckett Summer Fellowship from ECS. Through that fellowship, he connected with Dr. Plamen Atanassov at the University of New Mexico to study enzymes and their integration into microbial systems.

“I spent a summer at the University of New Mexico learning and integrating enzymes into a microbial system to make a hybrid system. It was interesting; it was a way to learn new things, a way to interact with people in different fields, to learn more. It was a very, very great experience.”—Carlo Santoro, 2013 summer fellowship recipient

Now, Dr. Santoro is working alongside Dr. Atanassov and some of the world’s best microbiologists to develop bio-catalytic materials that will simultaneously decontaminate wastewater and generate energy in a microbial biofuel cell.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Garfield Fink Summer Fellowship to see if you qualify!

Top row (l to r): Mark Sivak, Samantha Brain, Zachary Widel Middle row: Jeromy Rech, Dr. Jason Keleher, Richard Wiencek Third row: Julianne Truffa, Lisa Janes, Jacob Murray Bottom row: Amy Mlynarski

From outreach to knowledge acquisition, the newly established Lewis University student chapter is paving a path to instill a new-found enthusiasm in electrochemical science and technology.

“We will be able to help foster a sense of excitement for electrochemistry and begin to inspire others, in the same way that we were inspired,” says Jeromy Rech, chair of the Lewis University student chapter.

The inspiration behind starting the student chapter began in the late spring of this year, when a group of students from Lewis University’s Keleher Research Group presented at the 227th ECS Meeting in Chicago, IL. Upon meeting other ECS student members that initiated student chapters of their own, Rech and his group knew that forming a chapter at Lewis University was in the cards.

“We saw this as a great opportunity to begin to network and cultivate an academic relationship with other students who share similar passions,” Rech says.

Once the chapter was approved at the 228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, the group immediately put the ball in motion. From volunteering as judges in an annual science fair to hosting the capstone presentations for chemistry majors, the chapter is on track with its goals of outreach and knowledge acquisition.

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