In spring 2008, Bob Huggins presented a talk at the 213th ECS meeting with the provocative title, "Chasing the Wrong Rabbits?", which was accompanied by an even more provocative first line in the body of the abstract: "Several trends in battery materials development activities that are aimed in the wrong directions will be discussed". The context of this talk was specifically related to the use of high voltage cathodes in lithium ion battery systems, the thermodynamics of which can lead to high oxygen activities and ultimately oxygen evolution from the cathode. This conference was memorable, not just for the animated and interesting discussions that followed Bob's talk, nor the fact that Phoenix was unbearably hot at this time, but because it was my first major conference as a Ph.D. student and my introduction to the ECS community under the mentorship of Bob Huggins.

In this talk, thermodynamics considerations as it relates it relates to battery studies as well as other sage advice from Bob Huggins will be discussed along with closing remarks.