Why do so many chemists fear electrochemistry? Is it because there is no formal home for it in the chemistry curriculum? At any rate, electrochemistry is here to stay, and it’s worth the effort to understand it well. Electron transfer reactions are at the heart of modern energy applications, and electrochemistry is a useful tool for studying mechanistic inorganic chemistry. If our analytical colleagues aren't going to assume the mantle, then it's up to us, the inorganic chemists, to add it to our ever-growing list of topics.

Greetings loyal BITeS readers. I am currently in lovely Claremont, California with most of the Leadership Council for our annual project meeting. I'm here to give you a little behind the scenes look at what happens when we get together. After a long day of travel for most of us on the 1st, we started bright and early on the 2nd. The first day of the meeting focused on our current research project. Our fellows site is going to continue to develop and our first round of fellows will be meeting this summer in Dearborn, MI.

We are excited to announce our next IONiC/VIPEr summer workshop! This workshop will be held at Smith College in Northampton, MA, from June 4-7, 2019.

Finals week has just started and all I can say is "Wow." It was a busy semester for me just as I am sure it was for you our loyal BITeS readers. I've added a few more things to my list of things I wish I had learned about being a professor before I got started as one. Someday that will make for an interesting BITeS, but today is certainly not that day. I've also learned that "because I am stupid" is more often than not a good answer to any question that starts with "Why did you...?" (Followed by "and I'm sorry" when appropriate.)

It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.-  Sam Cooke

A few changes have happened to the VIPEr website overnight! We're rolling out the web content for the next phase of the NSF supported IONiC VIPEr project! And we're super excited to introduce the first cohort of VIPEr Fellows, along with Flo's new snakey BFF, Feller!

Your old friend Flo here just giving you a reminder about the great rates you can get from Progressive. 

Wait, what? Sorry wrong Flo.

Here on VIPEr, we share our LO’s with the community so that they can implement them in their classrooms and provide feedback. These LO’s are meant to be small pieces that can be dropped in to any course. We have recently been expanding our views, looking at whole classes (See the "Grand Experiment").

Once again it is Nobel season and in about 1 day from writting this post we will know who has taken home the chemistry prize. From the variety of predictions this year it seems like the field is wide open. The RSC has put together a nice summary from various sources here.

That's right! You read that correctly, meetings plural. I'll start with the one that is currently accepting submissions - the Spring 2019 meeting in Orlando. My minions, Emily Sylvester and Chip Nataro, will be doing all the leg work (which they have to do, me being a snake and all) for our annual symposium. We are now accepting submissions here. We expect to have three oral sessions as well as a poster session. Consider this your invitation to present. We will limit oral presentations to one per research group.

It's hard to believe that the academic year is about to start for many of us. I'm slowly making it through my pre-semester to do list. I spent the morning trying to pick the perfect paper and theme for my junior level LIterature and Seminar class where we explore everything from close reading strategies for reading the literature, searching, and data management to ethics and science in society. I have several good themes - I just need to pick one. I also found a paper on CO₂ conversion that I might be able to use to drive much of my Inorganic II class.