Dr. Esther S. Takeuchi is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and the William and Jane Knapp Chair in Energy and the Environment at Stony Brook University. She holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory as Chair of the Interdisciplinary Science Department in the Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate. Prior to her academic appointments, she was employed at Greatbatch, Inc., where her achievements in lithium battery research, particularly on cells for implantable applications, led to a number of key technological innovations. Her work was instrumental in the successful development and market introduction of the lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery which is the power source of life-saving implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs). The battery technology enabled the widespread adoption of ICDs and remains a market leader with >300,000 devices implanted per year. Dr. Takeuchi is a prolific inventor with > 150 patents.
Dr. Takeuchi’s accomplishments in energy storage research have been widely recognized. She is a member of National Academy of Engineering, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is a Charter Member of the National Academy of Innovation. She received the E. V Murphree and Astellas Awards from the American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society Battery Division Technology award. She is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Takeuchi received the 2018 European Inventor Award in the category in the category of non-EPO countries. In 2019 she received the Walston Chubb Innovation Award from Sigma Xi and an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Notre Dame University.
Dr. Takeuchi received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in chemistry and history and completed a Ph.D. in chemistry at the Ohio State University. She completed post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina and University at Buffalo.