Esther Takeuchi

Esther Sans Takeuchi (born Esther Sans, ) is a materials scientist and chemical engineer, working on energy storage systems and power sources for biomedical devices. She is also a distinguished professor at Stony Brook University and a chief scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. She holds more than 150 U.S. patents. “The battery was invented once and reinvented over 100 times. I don’t own the patent. The company does. It was called Greatbatch. Now it’s called Integer Corp. When you join a company, you sign over your patent rights to the company.”

Life and career Takeuchi is the daughter of Mary (Marija) and Rudolf Sans (Rūdolfs Sāns), Second World War refugees from Latvia. Rudolf and Mary fled Soviet-occupied Latvia for Germany in 1945, living in a refugee camp for several years, ultimately immigrating to the United States.

While working on her Ph.D., she met Kenneth J. Takeuchi and the two married on May 15, 1982. Takeuchi is also a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and served as the organization's president from 2011–2012.

Current/recent On July 16, 2018, Takeuchi’s company has been awarded a $12 million grant from the Department of Energy. They aim and want to focus on the development of batteries that are high energy and high power, which has traditionally been complicated and unfeasible. These batteries could be used in electric vehicles or in combination with renewable solar energy systems and renewable energy farms. For these devices to be easily miniature and reliable, they needed to be connected to an energy source that was also characteristically similar. Takeuchi’s innovation allowed for such devices to effectively function. The innovation is a new type of battery technology regarding a new cathode material, highly conductive electrolyte, and a novel cell design enabling high power and resulting in the creation of a silver vanadium oxide battery. These batteries are highly powerful, miniature in size, and have a long life. All of these characteristics greatly benefit ICD’s and their ability to help people with irregular rhythms and beating frequencies within their hearts. Every year, there are more than 300,000 ICDs implanted, and every year, the silver vanadium oxide battery is the dominant battery used by these devices. These SVO batteries are able to last for around five years, compared to the life of around a year for the other forms of batteries. Being implanted into the body, the life of such an implant is crucial. If traditional forms of batteries are used, patients usually have to go through surgery every year to replace the devices and ensure the functionality of the implant. With the SVO batteries, the batteries last much longer, over five times, and therefore patients don’t have to have their devices replaced as frequently. Initially launched into the marketplace it the late 1980s and early 1990s, these SVO batteries are still prevalent and widely used today.

Awards European Inventor Award in the "non-EPO countries" category, presented by the European Patent Office (EPO), 2018 E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 2013 Elected, National Academy of Engineering, 2004 Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 1999 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, 2008 – for inventing the silver vanadium oxide battery that powers implantable cardiac defibrillators Inductee, National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2011 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2021 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences (2022)

Books

Vanadium: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Practical Applications / Edition 1, by Alan S. Tracey, Gail R. Willsky, Esther S. Takeuchi