US-UK-Japan trio wins chemistry Nobel for lithium-ion battery

Source:AFP Published: 2019/10/9 23:03:41

A screen displays the portraits of the laureates of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (L-R) John Goodenough of US, Britain's Stanley Whittingham and Japan's Akira Yoshino during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 9, 2019. Photo: VCG


Three researchers on Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for the development of lithium-ion batteries, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

John Goodenough of the US - at 97 the oldest person to be awarded a Nobel prize - Britain's Stanley Whittingham, and Japan's Akira Yoshino will share the 9 million Swedish kronor ($914,000) prize sum equally.

"This lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles... [and] can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society," the jury said.

"Lithium batteries have revolutionized our lives since they first entered the market in 1991," it said, adding they were "of the greatest benefit to ­humankind."

The three will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

This year's Nobel prize season kicked off on Monday with the Medicine Prize awarded to Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe. They won for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, opening up new strategies to fight such diseases as cancer and anaemia.

On Tuesday, the Physics Prize honored Canadian-­American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for research on how the Universe evolved after the Big Bang, and the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, known as an exoplanet.

The Literature Prize will follow on Thursday, with two laureates to be crowned after a sexual harassment scandal forced the Swedish Academy to postpone the 2018 award.

On Friday the action moves to Norway where the Peace Prize is awarded.

The Economics Prize will wrap up the Nobel prize season on October 14.



Posted in: CROSS-BORDERS

blog comments powered by Disqus