Dialogue with Top Scientists
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Stanley Whittingham
[Award-winning glory]
On October 9, 2019, John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of their research contributions to lithium-ion batteries.
[resume]
Stanley Whittingham was born in Nottingham in Great Britain. He studied at Oxford University and completed his doctorate there in 1968. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the United States, he worked for the Exxon and Schlumberger oil companies before becoming a professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1988.
[Major achievements]
Storing electrical energy in batteries is a key factor in solving the world's energy supply. The element lithium is useful in batteries since it willingly releases electrons. In the 1970s, Stanley Whittingham developed an innovative cathode in a lithium battery. This was made from titanium disulphide which, at a molecular level, has spaces that can house lithium ions. Whittingham's contributions were crucial for the development of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in for example mobile phones and electric cars.
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