Founding Father of Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery M. Stanley Whittingham to Present Shipley Lectures at Clarkson University, March 28 & 29

Potsdam, NY (03/16/2018) — M. Stanley Whittingham will present the two lectures of Clarkson University's 23rd Shipley Distinguished Lectureship, March 28 and 29. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Whittingham is the SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at SUNY Binghamton and Vice-Chair, Board of Directors of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium (NYBEST). He is listed among others, for pioneering research leading to the development of the lithium-ion battery on a list of Citation Laureates for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Thomson Reuters.

Whittingham's lecture, "Why Energy Storage? - From Frogs to Personal Electronics" will be delivered on Wednesday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m. in Science Center Room 360 (#18 on the map at http://www.clarkson.edu/about/clarkson_map.pdf). The presentation will be preceded by a 3:15 p.m. reception outside of the SC 360 lecture room. The following morning Whittingham will deliver a lecture entitled, "What are the Chemistry and Materials Challenges Facing Intercalations Reactions in Batteries?" in the Student Center Multipurpose Rooms at 9:30 a.m. Refreshments at 9:00 a.m.

Born in the United Kingdom, Whittingham received his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from Oxford University. He has been active in Li-batteries since 1971 when he won the Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society for his work on the solid electrolyte beta-alumina. In 1972, he discovered the role of intercalation in battery reactions, which resulted in the first commercial lithium rechargeable batteries which were built by Exxon. In 1988 he initiated a materials chemistry program at SUNY Binghamton. He was awarded a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellowship in the Physics Department of the University of Tokyo in 1993. In 2004 he received the Battery Division Research Award, and in 2012 he was awarded the Yeager Award of the International Battery Association for his lifetime contributions to battery research. He is currently the director of the Northeast Center for Chemical Energy Storage, a Department of Energy-funded Energy Frontier Research Center, based at Binghamton. He is a Fellow of both the Electrochemical Society and the Materials Research Society.

The Shipley Distinguished Lectures are sponsored by the Shipley Family Foundation, with support from Clarkson's Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP). The lectures were initiated in 1994 by the late Professor Egon Matijevic through a generous gift from the foundation on behalf of the late Lucia and Charles Shipley.

The University's relationship with the Shipleys dates back to 1970 when Matijevic was invited by the Shipley Company to successfully resolve a patent situation involving their critical catalyst in electroless plating, establishing a professional relationship with the two entrepreneurs that continued over the years.

For more than 20 years, distinguished speakers from around the world, including nine Nobel Laureates, have presented talks.

The purpose of the lectures is to promote scholarly achievement at Clarkson by providing the opportunity for idea exchange and active learning, as well as allowing undergraduate and graduate students to meet the most prestigious speakers from all over the world.

For more information about the lectures, please contact Elizabeth McCarran at 315-268-6658 or emccarra@clarkson.edu.

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