learned society
A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...
(
professional association
A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...
) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of
electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...
and
solid-state
Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter.
Solid state may also refer to:
Electronics
* Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials
* Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their use ...
science and related technology. The Society membership comprises more than 8,000 scientists and engineers in over 85 countries at all degree levels and in all fields of electrochemistry, solid state science and related technologies. Additional support is provided by institutional members including corporations and laboratories.
ECS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Scientists around the world rely on the Society as a leading source of scientific research through its peer-reviewed journals, international meetings, and the ECS Digital Library on IOPscience. The Society publishes numerous journals including the ''Journal of The Electrochemical Society'' (the oldest peer-reviewed journal in its field), ''Journal of Solid State Science and Technology'', ''ECS Meeting Abstracts'', ''ECS Transactions'', and ''ECS Interface''. The Society sponsors the ECS Monographs Series. These distinguished monographs, published by John Wiley & Sons, are the leading textbooks in their fields.
The ECS Digital Library on IOPscience encompasses over 160,000 journal and magazine articles and meeting abstracts. The Society supports open access through Free the Science ', the Society’s initiative to make research freely available to world readers and free for authors to publish.
The Society has 13 topic interest area divisions as well as regional sections in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and Southern Asia; over 100 ECS student chapters are located in major universities in all of these regions as well as Eastern Europe and South Africa. Student members benefit from exposure to experts in their fields, sharing research, volunteer activities, and career development.
ECS administers numerous international awards and supports STEM educational and outreach efforts.
History The Electrochemical Society was founded in 1902 in Philadelphia, PA. At the beginning, ECS was called the American Electrochemical Society. It was, even then, a melting pot of scientific and technological disciplines, and of their adherents, who participated from around the globe.
The 19th century saw many applications of electricity to chemical processes and chemical understanding. Bridging the gap between electrical engineering and chemistry led innovative young people in industrial and academic circles to search for a new forum to discuss developments in the burgeoning field of electrochemistry.
The original constitution of the Society called for holding meetings and publishing papers presented there and the ensuing discussions. In 1902 the Society ushered in a new publication, ''Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society''. In 1907 the first “local” section was formed at the University of Wisconsin. That same year, the ''American Electrochemical Society Bulletin'' was launched; it became the ''Journal of The Electrochemical Society'' in 1948.
In the 1920s, topical interest area divisions began to be founded, including the High Temperature Materials Division and the Electrodeposition Division. In 1930, the international nature of the Society was officially recognized by dropping “American” from the name. A new category of membership was started in 1941 to permit industrial companies to support the Society’s mission. ECS began fulfilling the need for critical textbooks with the publication of its second monograph, the ''Corrosion Handbook'', by H. H. Uhlig in 1948.
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the Society continued to grow in size and importance, expanding the number of its publications, and the significance of the technical research unveiled at its meetings.
Over time, the Society’s members and publications’ authors have included many distinguished scientists and engineers. The Society’s original charter members included:
* E. G. Acheson, who commercialized carborundum, an artificial graphite;
* H. H. Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical Company;
* C. M. Hall, the inventor of the Hall process for the manufacture of aluminum;
* Edward Weston, the founder of Weston Instruments.
Thomas A. Edison joined the Society in 1903 and enjoyed membership for 28 years. In 1965, Moore’s law forever changed the world of technology. That seminal predictio developed its roots within the Society. ECS has included numerou Nobel laureates among its members, most recently the three co-winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino shared the prize “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.”
For a more complete history of ECS, please consul
ECS alignment groups
The Society’s alignment groups include divisionssections an student chapters that represent the wide range of interests of the electrochemical and solid state science and technology community.
Divisions
Battery (BATT)
Topical Interest Area (TIA): Batteries and Energy Storage (established 1947)
High-Temperature Energy, Materials, & Processes (H-TEMP)
TIA: Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion (established 1921)
Corrosion (CORR)
TIA: Corrosion Science and Technology (established 1942)
Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering (IE&EE)
TIA: Electrochemical Engineering (established 1943)
Dielectric Science and Technology (DS&T)
TIA: Dielectric Science and Materials (established 1945)
Luminescence and Display Materials (LDM)
TIA: Luminescence and Display Materials, Devices, and Processing (established 1982)
Electrodeposition (ELDP)
TIA: Electrochemical/Electroless Deposition (established 1921)
Nanocarbons (NANO)
TIA: Carbon Nanostructures and Devices (established 1993)
Electronics and Photonics (EPD)
TIA: Electronic Materials and Processing and Electronic and Photonic Devices and Systems (established 1931)
Organic and Biological Electrochemistry (OBE)
TIA: Organic and Bioelectrochemistry (established 1940)
Energy Technology (ETD)
TIA: Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion (established 1983)
Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry (PAE)
TIA: Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry, Electrocatalysis, and Photoelectrochemistry (established 1936)
Sensor (SENS)
TIA: Sensors (established 1988)
Sections
ECS sections introduce and support activities in electrochemistry and solid state science in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Involvement in a section provides networking opportunities for those both new to the field or advanced in their careers. For those not able to attend ECS biannual meetings, sections bring technical news and activities within reach. Sections participate in ECS affairs, work to build Society membership, and help create awareness for the science.
ECS Arizona Section
ECS Brazil Section
ECS Canada Section
ECS Chicago Section
ECS Cleveland Section
ECS Detroit Section
ECS Europe Section
ECS Georgia Section
ECS India Section
ECS India Section
ECS Israel Section
ECS Japan Section
ECS Korea Section
ECS Mexico Section
ECS National Capital Section
ECS New England Section
ECS Pacific Northwest Section
ECS Pittsburgh Section
ECS San Francisco Section
ECS Singapore Section
ECS Taiwan Section
ECS Texas Section
ECS Twin Cities Section
Student Chapters
More tha 100 ECS student chapters are located in major universities in all of these regions as well as Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, South Africa, and Southern Asia.
Meetings
The Society has hosted scientific technical meetings since 1902 including its biannual meetings in the spring and fall of each year. Th ECS biannual meetings bring together the most active researchers in academia, government, and industry—both professionals and students—to engage, discuss, and innovate in the areas of electrochemistry and solid state science and related technology. They are a premier destination—in person or online—for industry professionals to experience five days of learning, technical presentations, business development, and networking. ECS also sponsors meetings for other renowned scientific organizations including the Storage X International Symposium Series, the International Meeting on Chemical Sensors, and the International Symposium on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
Publications
ECS publishes
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
technical journals, proceedings, monographs, conference abstracts, and a quarterly news
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
A number of ECS journals which have ceased publication are now preserved as a archive These archived publications are available through th ECS Digital Library
* ''Electrochemical Society Monograph Series''
ECS Monographs provide authoritative, detailed accounts on specific topics in electrochemistry and solid-state science and technology. Since the 1940s, ECS and noted publishers have cooperated to publish leading titles in these fields John Wiley & Sons is the Society’s publishing partner on the series today.
''Journal of The Electrochemical Society''
JES is the flagship journal of The Electrochemical Society. Published continuously from 1902 to the present, JES is one of the most highly-cited journals in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology.
''ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology''
JSS is a peer-reviewed journal covering fundamental and applied areas of solid state science and technology, including experimental and theoretical aspects of the chemistry and physics of materials and devices.
''ECS Interface''
''The Electrochemical Society Interface'' is an authoritative yet accessible publication for those in the field of solid state and electrochemical science and technology. Published quarterly, this four-color magazine contains technical articles about the latest developments in the field, and presents news and information about and for Society members.
''ECS Meetings Abstracts''
''ECS Meeting Abstracts'' contain extended abstracts of the technical papers presented at the ECS biannual meetings and ECS-sponsored meetings. This publication offers a first look into current research in the field. ''ECS Meeting Abstracts'' are freely available to all visitors to the ECS Digital Library.
''ECS Transactions''
ECST is the official conference proceedings publication of The Electrochemical Society. This publication features full-text content of proceedings from ECS meetings and ECS-sponsored meetings. ECST is a high-quality venue for authors and an excellent resource for researchers. The papers appearing in ECST are reviewed to ensure that submissions meet generally-accepted scientific standards.
''ECS Meeting Abstracts''
''ECS Meeting Abstracts'' contain extended abstracts of the technical papers presented at the ECS biannual meetings and ECS-sponsored meetings. This publication offers a first look into current research in the field. ''ECS Meeting Abstracts'' are freely available to all visitors to the ECS Digital Library.
''Free the Science'' ''Free the Science'' is ECS’s initiative to make research freely available to all readers, while remaining free for authors to publish.
Educational activities and programs
Awards
The society recognizes members for outstanding technical achievement in electrochemical and solid state science and technology at various career levels, and recognizes exceptional service to the Society, through the ECS Honors & Awards Program—the international awards, medals, and prizes administered by the Society.
Starting in 1919, Honorary Membership was bestowed for outstanding contributions to the Society. ECS's most prestigious award, the
Edward Goodrich Acheson Award The Edward Goodrich Acheson Award was established by The Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 1928 to honor the memory of Edward Goodrich Acheson, a charter member of ECS. The award is presented every 2 years for "conspicuous contribution to the advance ...
, established in 1928, is presented in even-numbered years for "conspicuous contribution to the advancement of the objectives, purposes, and activities of the society".
Supporting students and early career scientists has been a long-held goal of The Electrochemical Society. The Norman Hackerman Young Author Award —established in 1928—is one of the first awards created by the Society. It is given for the best paper published in the ''Journal of The Electrochemical Society'' that year by a young author or co-authors. Recipients must be under 31 years of age. Among the significant talent recognized at an early age by this award is Nobel laureate, M. Stanley Whittingham, who received it in 1970.
The
Olin Palladium Award The Olin Palladium Award (formerly the Palladium Medal Award) was established by The Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 1950 and is presented every 2 years to recognize outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of all types of electro ...
(formerly the Palladium Medal Award), established in 1950, is presented in odd-numbered years to recognize "distinguished contributions to the field of electrochemical or corrosion science."
ECS honors members with the designation, ''Fellow of The Electrochemical Society'' for having made significant accomplishments to the fields of electrochemistry and solid state science and technology, and to the Society.
The ''Vittorio de Nora Award'' was established in 1971 to recognize distinguished contributions to the field of electrochemical engineering and technology.
Fellowships and grants
Through competitive fellowship stipends, ECS supports students and young professionals as they pursue new ideas and forge connections with professionals both within and outside the field. These include th Biannual Meeting Travel Grants Program supported by ECS divisions and sections to help students, postdocs, and early career researchers attend ECS biannual meetings. ECS Summer Fellowships and th Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship support young researchers’ work through the months of June through August.
Th ECS Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship encourages young professors and scholars to pursue research in green energy technology that may promote the development of next-generation vehicles capable of utilizing fuel cells.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
: Edison becam a member ref name=ECSHistory/> on April 4, 1903. Early members recall attending a meeting at Edison's home in the Society’s early days. Most recognized for inventing the
phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
, the motion picture camera, and the
electric light bulb
An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...
, Edison's contributions to electrochemistry were monumental.
* John B. Goodenough,
M. Stanley Whittingham
Michael Stanley Whittingham (born 22 December 1941) is a British-American chemist. He is currently a professor of chemistry and director of both the Institute for Materials Research and the Materials Science and Engineering program at Binghamton ...
, and
Akira Yoshino
is a Japanese chemist. He is a fellow of Asahi Kasei Corporation and a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya. He created the first safe, production-viable lithium-ion battery which became used widely in cellular phones and notebook computers ...
, all long time ECS members, shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of lithium-ion batteries”.
*
Isamu Akasaki
was a Japanese engineer and physicist, specializing in the field of semiconductor technology and Nobel Prize laureate, best known for inventing the bright gallium nitride ( GaN) p-n junction blue LED in 1989 and subsequently the high-brightness ...
,
Hiroshi Amano
is a Japanese physicist, engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology. For his work he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Isamu Akasaki and Shuji Nakamura for "the invention of efficient bl ...
, and
Shuji Nakamura
is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and is rega ...
shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”.
*
Jack Kilby
Jack St. Clair Kilby (November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005) was an American electrical engineer who took part (along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild) in the realization of the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments (TI) in 1 ...
’s invention of the integrated circuit earned him half of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics "for basic work on information and communication technology".
*
Steven Chu
Steven ChuWilliam D. Phillips were co-recipients of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light”.
*
Richard Smalley
Richard Errett Smalley (June 6, 1943 – October 28, 2005) was an American chemist who was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy at Rice University. In 1996, along with Robert Curl, also a professor of ch ...
shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery of fullerenes”.
* Rudolph A. Marcus won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems".
*
Jean-Marie Lehn
Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramole ...
, an early innovator in the field of supramolecular chemistry, shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity”.
*
Gerd Binnig
Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.
Early life and education
Binnig wa ...
shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope”. Charles W. Tobias A pioneer in the field of electrochemical engineering, Tobias made a long-lasting and far-reaching impact on the field of electrochemical science by forming the Chemical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley in 1947. He served as ECS president from 1970-1971.
*
Gordon E. Moore
Gordon Earle Moore (born January 3, 1929) is an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corporation. He is also the original proponent of Moore's law.
As of March 2021, Moore's net worth is report ...
: The co-founder of Intel was known for his 1965 principal which made possible the delivery of more powerful and lower costing semiconductor chips. This was later known as
Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
.
*
Norman Hackerman
Norman Hackerman (March 2, 1912 – June 16, 2007) was an American chemist, professor, and academic administrator who served as the 18th President of the University of Texas at Austin (1967–1970) and later as the 4th President of Rice Universi ...
: The internationally known expert in metal corrosion served as ECS president in 1957-1958. Hackerman is most recognized for developing the electrochemistry of oxidation.
*
Carl Wagner
Carl Wilhelm Wagner (May 25, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was a German Physical chemist. He is best known for his pioneering work on Solid-state chemistry, where his work on oxidation rate theory, counter diffusion of ions and defect chemistry ...
: Often referred to as the father of solid state chemistry, Wagner's work on oxidation rate theory, counter diffusion of ions, and defect chemistry considerably advanced knowledge of how reactions proceed at the atomic level in the solid state. Wagner was the first recipient of the ECS Palladium Award in 1951.
*
Irving Langmuir
Irving Langmuir (; January 31, 1881 – August 16, 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.
Langmuir's most famous publication is the 1919 art ...
: received the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry”.
*
Edward Goodrich Acheson
Edward Goodrich Acheson (March 9, 1856 – July 6, 1931) was an American chemist. Born in Washington, Pennsylvania, he was the inventor of the Acheson process, which is still used to make Silicon carbide (carborundum) and later a manufacturer of ...
carborundum
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal sin ...
and
graphite
Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...
. The ECS Acheson Award was named in his honor in 1931.
*
Theodore William Richards
Theodore William Richards (January 31, 1868 – April 2, 1928) was the first American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, earning the award "in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the ...
: Richards, whose research helped confirm the existence of isotopes, received the 1914 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, “in recognition of his accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements”.
*
Willis R. Whitney
Willis Rodney Whitney (August 22, 1868 – January 9, 1958) was an American chemist and founder of the research laboratory of the General Electric Company. He is known as the "father of industrial research" in the United States for blending the w ...
: ECS president from 1911-1912, Whitney is most recognized among his many achievements for founding the research laboratory of the
General Electric Company
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...
.
*
Leo Baekeland
Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944) was a Belgian chemist. He is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" ...
: Baekland, who served as ECS president in 1909, is most famous for inventing of
Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
in 1907. His entrepreneurial genius and inventive nature made Baekeland one of the most important players in chemical technology.
* Herbert H. Dow: Among his most significant achievements, Dow founded the
Dow Chemical Company
The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world.
Dow manufactures plastic ...
in 1897. Dow Chemical funded the creation of the ECS Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering Division H. H. Dow Memorial Student Achievement Award in his honor in 1990.
*
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...
: Noted for his achievements in electroplating, Weston developed the electrochemical cell – named the
Weston cell
The Weston standard cell is a wet-chemical cell that produces a highly stable voltage suitable as a laboratory standard for calibration of voltmeters. Invented by Edward Weston in 1893, it was adopted as the International Standard for EMF fro ...
, for the voltage standard.
*
Charles Martin Hall
Charles Martin Hall (December 6, 1863 – December 27, 1914) was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminum, which became the first metal to atta ...
: Hall, best known for inventing an inexpensive process to produce aluminum, was one of the founders of Alcoa.
*
Lawrence Addicks
Lawrence Addicks (March 3, 1878 - January 16, 1964) was president of the Electrochemical Society from 1915 to 1916. He was a member of the Naval Consulting Board during World War I starting in 1915.
Biography
He was born on March 3, 1878, in Phil ...
(1878-1964) served as president of The Electrochemical Society from 1915 to 1916.