This award will provide partial support for the 2014 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Batteries, to be held in Ventura, CA on March 8-9 and March 9-14, 2014, respectively. The majority of the 50 GRS participants are expected to attend the GRC, which will have attendance capped at 200 participants. The GRC will feature two poster sessions and nine technical sessions, including a session dedicated to novel approaches recently taken by junior investigators. All presentations are from invited speakers who represent the leaders in the field.
The technical challenges of understanding and improving current electrochemical energy storage (EES) systems, which include batteries, require a collaborative effort from researchers in many disciplines. There are still many fundamental gaps in understanding the atomic- and molecular-level processes that determine and govern the function, operation, performance limitations, and failure of EES systems. Fundamental knowledge is critically needed to uncover the underlying principles that control these complex and interrelated processes. With this underpinning knowledge, wholly new concepts in materials design can be developed for producing electrodes, electrolytes, and battery cells that are capable of storing higher energy densities and have long cycle lifetimes, at lower cost. The themes of the GRC and GRS on batteries have been chosen to facilitate the exchange of ideas between researchers who work on many aspects of EES. The GRS program will consist of short talks from graduate students and post doctoral research associates, mixed with discussion time and poster sessions. Technical content will be divided into three sessions, dedicated to materials for energy storage, advances in battery characterization methods, and studies of electrochemical interfaces.
The proposed GRS and GRC will provide significant professional development activities for graduate students and post doctoral research associates in the area of electrochemical energy storage. The GRS and GRC will also stimulate new advances in batteries for renewable energy storage through interaction of scientists and engineers who are both new and established in this field.
The Gordon Research Seminar on BATTERIES was held at Four Points Sheraton, Ventura, California, March 8-9th 2014. The Seminar was well-attended with 72 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 72 attendees, 28 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 28 respondents, 18% were Minorities – 0% Hispanic, 0% Asian and 18% African American. Approximately 28% of the participants at the 2014 meeting were women. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field.
