Henry White and Allen J. Bard at the 227th ECS Meeting in Chicago, IL

This past May, ECS presented Dr. Henry White with the first ever Allen J. Bard Award at the 227^th ECS Meeting in Chicago. A former student of Bard himself, Dr. White has worked with his research team to advance new methods to determine the structure of biological polymers like DNA, develop novel batteries with increased energy storage capacity, and investigate the delivery of drugs through human skin via electrical currents. ECS is delighted to begin the tradition of the Allen J. Bard Award so auspiciously.

Yet, the inaugural presentation of the Bard Award at the 227^th ECS Meeting was also a culmination: the satisfying conclusion to a story of hard work and generosity and the enduring connection between an educator and the lives he impacted. The desire to create an award in honor of Dr. Bard first arose in May 2013. Through the generous outpouring of many of Bard’s former students, ECS was able to fully endow the award in only two years. Thanks to this support, the Allen J. Bard Award will continue to honor the achievements of outstanding electrochemists for years to come. Below, please see a timeline of the Allen J. Bard Award, including some of Dr. Bard’s major accomplishments.

To further celebrate the impact of Dr. Bard, ECS now hopes to establish a symposium in his honor, which will occur in conjunction with the presentation of the award. Topics for the symposium will be guided by the award winner and by that spirit of creativity and intellectual adventurousness characteristic of Bard and his work.

To support the Bard Award endowment, please consider donating online.

ECS staff recently analyzed membership data to determine which organizations had the largest presence within the society. Here is what we discovered:

1.)             Argonne National Laboratory (35)                           

 ∗ 2.)     Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory  (29)              Member Since: 2004

∗ 3.)                  IBM Corporation (21)                                     Member Since: 1957

∗ 3.)            Industrie De Nora S.p.A. (21)                                  Member Since: 1983

∗ 3.)                    Medtronic Inc. (21)                                         Member Since: 1980

∗ 6.)      Sandia National Laboratories (20)                                  Member Since: 1997

7.)                                   IMEC (17)                                           

∗ 8.)           Bio-Logic USA/Bio-Logic SAS (16)                           Member Since: 2008

∗ 9.)    Toyota Research Institute of North America (15)         Member Since: 2008

∗ 9.)              Nissan Motor Co Ltd. (15)                                   Member Since: 2007

9.)           National Renewable Energy Laboratory (15)            

∗ 9.)                        Panasonic (15)                                             Member Since: 1994

9.)                      Paul Scherrer Institut (15)                              

∗The total amount of members can be found next to each organization’s name.
The names in green with an asterisk indicate organizations that have an institutional membership.

ECS is grateful for the continued support from each of these important partners, particularly those that have committed to an institutional membership. If your organization might be interested in an institutional membership, please review the options online or contact the ECS development office at development@electrochem.org.

“The unique and longer-term part of our OA plan is to “Free the Science™“: to provide all ECS content at no cost to anyone—no fees for authors, readers, and libraries.”

Published in the latest issue of Interface.

The models of scientific communication and publication—which have served us all so well for so long—are no longer fully meeting the spirit of the ECS mission, may not be financially viable, and are hurting the dissemination of the results of scientific research.

The future of Open Access (OA) can change not only scholarly publishing, but can change the nature of scientific communication itself. OA has the power to more “evenly distribute” the advantages currently given to those who can easily access the outputs of scientific research.

ECS has long been concerned with facilitating that access, and our mission has been to disseminate the content from within our technical domain, as broadly as possible, and with as few barriers as possible. To accomplish this, we have maintained a robust, high-quality, high-impact publishing program for over 100 years.

Several years ago, ECS started taking a serious look at the challenges facing us in fulfilling our mission, specifically with respect to our publishing program. The challenges—faced by others in publishing, to a greater or lesser degree—are many and have become increasingly sever.

When a commercial scientific publisher is taking a 35% net profit out of the system, compared with under 2% by ECS, something is not only wrong, but it is clear that some publishers will do anything and everything they can to keep maintaining that level of profit. For many, journal publishing has indeed become a business.

Read the rest.

The ECS Conference on Electrochemical Energy Conversion & Storage with SOFC-XIV convening in Glasgow, Scotland at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre from July 26-31, 2015 is the first of a series of planned biennial conferences in Europe by ECS on electrochemical energy conversion/storage materials, concepts, and systems.

We are creating a forum where scientists and engineers can come together and discuss fundamental advances and engineering innovations.

Abstracts are due February 20, 2015
Find out more about submitting your abstract today!

The lead organizers of this conference are among the top researchers in their respective fields. We wanted to take a moment to introduce them to you:

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May it be then a reward to all the Interface authors to know that there is a crowd of people who read their work.

An article by Interface Co-Editor Petr Vanysek in the latest issue of the publication.

I am happy to report that people read Interface magazine. Just the other day I received a long letter commenting on the usefulness of the topical articles, this one specifically detailing the issue dealing with ionic liquids. The message of the letter was that the reviews in Interface are just as useful as the summary articles in peer-reviewed publications. Another reader, reacting to the side remark I made in my recent editorial about opening a dog kennel, wanted to unload his German shepherds on me. Yet another letter mentioned the Classics column and how nice it was to read recollections about scientists, written by other scientists and colleagues.

Interface does not have an officially gauged impact factor and we do not have a good measure of how well and thoroughly this magazine is read. Still, we like to hear that it is a useful medium for the members, the advertisers, and anybody else who may follow what shows up in our quarterly.

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From coffee breaks to technical demonstrations, exhibitors and sponsors help support the Chicago meeting while presenting their products and services to scientists and engineers from around the world.

“The main opportunity for us is to meet our customers… We gain valuable information about the newest techniques and the newest applications that people are trying to address.” —Bill Eggers, BioLogic USA

Exhibitors connect with customers—old and new—and stay on the cutting edge of research in their field.

If you are interested in partnering with ECS as an exhibitor or sponsor, please submit your application by February 20th to Becca Jensen Compton, becca.compton@electrochem.org.

The Arizona Section of ECS will be hosting a meeting with special guest speaker Professor Robert F. Savinell.

Date: January 26, 2014

Time: Networking and refreshments at 6:15 PM; Seminar begins at 7:00 PM

Place: University of Arizona
Tuscon, AZ 85721
Agave Room, 4th Floor of Student Union Building

Cost: Free to attend; $5 for light refreshments

Speaker: Professor Robert F. Savinell
George S. Dively Professor of Electrochemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University
Professor Savinell is recognized as a leading authority on electrochemical energy storage and conversion. His research has been directed at fundamental science and engineering research for electrochemical systems and novel device design, development, and optimization. Dr. Savinell has over 100 publications and seven patents in the electrochemical field. He is a past chair of ECS’s Electrolytic and Electrochemical Engineering Division, a former editor of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, and a Fellow of ECS.

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“The first meeting that I attended was held in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1928. I went with Dr. W. C. Moore, who had previously persuaded me to become a member. I knew immediately that I was interested in the Society. That interest was not due to the papers that I listened to. There was nothing strictly on electro-organic on the program. I believe that it was due to the enthusiasm of the group, and the fact that I was made to feel that I belonged.”
-Sherlock Swann, Jr.

An article by Richard Alkire in the latest issue of Interface.

Electro-organic chemistry had its champion in Sherlock Swann, Jr. His scholarship, especially his massive bibliographic efforts, served singlehandedly to keep alive the promise and spirit of electro-organic chemistry in the U.S. from the 1930s to the 50s.

He was a charter member of the Electro-organic Division of The Electrochemical Society, formed in 1940, and was the first person to hold the offices of Secretary, Vice-Chair, and Chair of that Division. Beginning with his first ECS meeting in 1928 and continuing throughout his life, he played an active role in the Society, including a term as President in 1958-59. He was the Electro-organic Divisional Editor of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 1939-59; the Lifetime Honorary Chair of the Chicago Section; and was made an Honorary Member of the Society in 1974.

Swann was born in 1900 in Baltimore, Maryland, where his family had deep roots and a tradition of service to society. His great-grandfather, Thomas Swann, served as governor of Maryland, as mayor of Baltimore, as President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and was a leading force in the creation of Druid Hill Park, Baltimore’s first large municipal park. His father served as Baltimore police commissioner and subsequently as Postmaster, and led the reconstruction of downtown Baltimore police commissioner and subsequently as Postmaster, and led the reconstruction of downtown Baltimore and its streets after the Great Fire of 1904.

Read the rest.

Each year ECS awards up to five Summer Fellowships to assist students in continuing their graduate work during the summer months in a field of interest to the Society. Congratulations to the five Summer Fellowship recipients for 2014. The Society thanks the Summer Fellowship Committee for their work in reviewing the applications and selecting five excellent recipients. Applications for the 2015 Summer Fellowships are due January 15, 2015.

Get more information here.

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Websites of Note are gathered by Zoltan Nagy.

This is the latest Websites of Note, a regular feature in the ECS magazine Interface researched by Zoltan Nagy, a semi-retired electrochemist.

Corrosion Electrochemistry and Kinetics – P.R. Roberge, McGraw-Hill Professional
Two very detailed introductory websites of corrosion and its connection and measurements by electrochemistry. Find the second site here.

Cathodic Protection – Deepwater Corrosion Services
A series of a large number of papers dealing with all aspects of cathodic protection, theory, and applications.

Kinetics of Aqueous Corrosion – Dept. of Materials Science and Metallurgy, (U. of Cambridge)
A very good series of teaching material about corrosion and its connection to electrochemistry with practical applications.

Anodic Protection: Its Operation and Applications – J.I. Munro and W.W. Shim, Corrosion Services Co. Ltd
Detailed theory and applications of anodic protection, which somehow nowadays does not seem very practical, though it made big news about fifty years ago.

Dr. Nagy welcomes suggestions for entries; send them to nagyz@email.unc.edu.

P.S. If you haven’t checked out Dr. Nagy’s Electrochemistry Knowledge Base, make sure to head over to the site to see the huge wealth of electrochemical resources that he has curated.