Commentary and News

Bob Rodgers Retires

Bob is the author of this web site. Although he is retiring from Gamry Instruments, he is not retiring from electrochemistry. He will be continuing his affiliation with Gamry as an unofficial emeritus electrochemist. He will be in the Gamry booth at the upcoming ECS meeting in Phoenix.

His retirement should mean that he can pay more attention to keeping this web site updated!

 ( April 2008 )

Petr Zuman 

I came across a news release from Clarkson University that announced that Petr Zuman is listed on the website www.incredible-people.com. Zuman arrived at Clarkson while I was finishing my Ph.D. and he served on my examination committee. He is truly an incredible and gracious electrochemist!

I looked on the incredible-people.com website under scientists and found quite a few electrochemists sprinkled in among the likes of Einstein and Aristotle. Names like Janet Osteryoung, Al Bard, Zuman, Delahay, Wenking, Gerischer, Ilkovic, Kemula, Heyrovsky, Nernst, Tafel, and Faraday to name a few.

However, near the bottom of the list I also found Kareem Abdul Jabbar! At first I thought he was listed out of place, but then I remembered that Zuman was, at one time, an international basketball referee!

 ( Sept 2006 )

George S Wilson to Receive the 2007 Reilley Award

George Wilson (Univ. of Kansas) has been named the winner of SEAC's 2007 Reilley Award.  Mary Beth Williams (Penn State) will receive  the 2007 Young Investigator Award.  The Awards will be presented at PittCon 2007 in March 2007.  PittCon will be particularly interesting this year since the Analytical Division of the ACS has forgone a program at the Spring ACS meeting in lieu of joining with PittCon to sponsor sessions in Chicago.

Congratulations to George and Mary Beth!

 ( Sept 2006 )

Joe Wang wins ACS Analytical Division's Award in Electrochemistry

Joe Wang of Arizona State Univ. will be awarded the Analytical Division's Award in Electrochemistry at the Fall 2006 ACS meeting in San Francisco. The Award is sponsored by Cole-Palmer.

Congratulations, Joe!

 ( April 2006 )

Standard EIS Data File Formats

I believe that both ISO and ASTM are considering 'standard' data file formats for EIS data. I urge both organizations to look at XML as a formatting protocol for this standard!

XML is becoming a well established mechanism for exchanging data.  Microsoft's Office allows data to be saved in an XML format. "Parsers" are programs or subroutines that check for correct formatting and simplify the programmer's task of deciphering the data.  They are standardized and readily available. The web address of the  "DTD" or "DocType Definition" becomes part of the data document, and should be openly available on the Internet.. 

XML does not determine what content should be included in the data file, it just dictates the formatting of the data. It would be a pity to re-invent a formatting protocol when such a flexible and ubiquitous one already exists. 

Several articles have been published explaining XML and extolling its virtues as a protocol for exchanging scientific data. 

"An XML Model for Analytical Instrument Data", Don Kuehl, Anal. Chem., 75 (2003) 125A-127A.

 ( Jan 2006 )

OLDER