The following is an announcement from the President Elect of the International Thermoelectric Society. Please direct your responses to:
Prof. Ctirad Uher, ITS President Elect
Ctirad Uher

Dear prospective Conference Organizer,

The International Thermoelectric Society (ITS) is looking for organizations interested in hosting its 27th annual International Conference on Thermoelectrics (ICT) in the year 2008.

The ICT has been the most important annual meeting for scientists, engineers and industry in the field of thermoelectric research and development for application to power generation, thermal management and sensing equipment. Thanks to a renewal in the field of thermoelectrics, and a string of well organized

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COMMENTARY:
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+- Warts and All

On returning from ICT2005 I recalled a specialist conference I attended nearly 25 years ago. A gentleman I met there, who must then have been about my age now, put science in a context I have never forgotten. He told me with great enthusiasm what a wonderful career this 'science' is. You make guesses and you try them out. Sometimes you are right and sometimes you are not, but you report what you find out 'warts and all'. And they pay you to do this. What more are you looking for out of life?

I was reminded of this view of science because it seems people no longer report the warts. Here's what I mean. The majority of the papers at ICTs are really pretty good, or I would stop going. But there are some 'regulars' reporting really high ZT values (would they were true), or violations of Onsager's relation or some such craziness. I can think of a good half dozen suspicious reports off the top of my head. It is not that I'm so sure they are wrong. It is just that the burden of proof is on them, not me. And for each of this particular group, someone has in fact tried to reproduce the results and failed. But you hear these things only in the hallways or over beer. They aren't getting written down and publicly reported. I can't tell you why the warts aren't reported (presumably each for their own reasons), but I can tell you the result is damaging everyone in the field.

I suspect what has changed is the 'and they pay you to do this' part. Doing careful work on negative results won't attract many sponsors.

Causes aside, here is what I ask. When you see a suspicious claim crop up over and over (or are asked to review one), climb all over them to get an independent verification. Climb over them in public, with questions after their talk. Buy them a beer later, but be brutal on the data. This isn't personal, it is about good science. Good data grows stronger when you beat on it, bad data falls apart.

When you are asked to do an external verification, do it only on condition that you will publish the results "warts and all". Make this clear before you start. But most of all, if you've made 400 samples and only 3 show the effect you are describing: say so in the abstract. Don't make me ask you about it. Whether it is your own work or not, publish "warts and all." Anything less is just a useless waste.

End of rant. Return to your normal routine. Or not.

Ronggui Yang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology met demanding standard to win the 2005 Goldsmid Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics by a Graduate Student. The Goldsmid Award, presented to Mr. Yang at the ICT2005 banquet, seeks to identify exceptional Ph.D. candidate graduate students hwo have made unusually notable contributions to thermoelectrics. The 2005 award was sponsored again by Marlow Industries, Inc. and carries a cash award of US$1000 as well as an additional US$1000 to be used for travel and fees relate to attending the ICT.

Mr. Yang was unanimously recommended by the Award Committee. Selected papers by Mr. Yang considered by the selection committee are available through the ITS website through the new online thermoelectric bibliography 'ZTbib' available at:

Prof. Tritt of Clemson University welcomed 249 thermoelectricians to ICT2005 held at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina USA June 19-23, 2005. Attendees came from from 24 countries ranging from Australia (2) to Uzbekistan (1), with the largest representations from the US (140), Japan (59), Germany (9), S. Korea (7) and Russia (5). Of the attendees, 62 were students including 19 from Clemson University 'who all' acted as hosts, guides, drivers and generally contributed to the congenial atmosphere.

Aside from the technical highlights, Prof. Tritt's musical performance was particularly notable as he demonstrated musical skill to rival his science.

The book of abstracts lists 117 oral and 88 poster presentations, for a total of 205 papers (a few of which were not presented for various reasons). Obviously only a few can be mentioned in the Highlights below.

The poster requirements are 3 foot by 4 foot.

There will be 40" x 60" foamcore board mounted on easels
for each poster and the presenters can pin their posters to that board
with push pins which we will provide.

- ICT2005 Organizering Commitee