Rachid Yazami

Rachid Yazami ( ; born 1953) is a Moroccan scientist, engineer, and inventor. He is best known for his critical role in the development of the graphite anode (negative pole) for lithium-ion batteries and his research on fluoride ion batteries.

Education Yazami graduated from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in 1978. He also received a PhD degree in 1985.

Battery research Yazami's research project included a study of graphite intercalation compounds for lithium battery applications. In 1985, he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) as a research associate. He was later promoted to the position of research director and professor in 1998. That same year, Yazami was a finalist of the Global Energy Award (Russia, 2014).

In September 2014, Rachid Yazami was appointed by HM the King of Morocco a Corresponding Member of the Hassan II Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Morocco.

Yazami received the Royal Medal (Wissam Malaki) of Intellectual Competency from HM the King of Morocco Mohamed VI, during Throne Day on 30 July 2014.

In March 2016, Rachid Yazami received an award as a finalist of the Marius Lavet Prize of Inventing-Engineers in Paris, France.

On 14 July 2016 Yazami was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Legion of honor of France.

In March 2017, he received the Honors Award of the Moroccans of the World.

In November 2018, Yazami was the recipient of the Takreem Award for Science and Technological Achievement considered as the Arab Scientist of the year.

In September 2019, Yazami received the Arab Investor Award in the “Green Application” category.

In February 2020, Yazami won the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Excellence in the UAE.

In 2020 Yazami was offered the position of visiting professor at the Private University of Fes (Morocco)

In 2021 Yazami was appointed a member of the New Energy Council of Reliance Industries Limited, India

In 2021 Yazami was appointed President of the Scientific Board of the Moroccan Institute of Advanced Studies.

In February 2022, Yazami was appointed a visiting scholar in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.

In December 2023, Yazami was awarded the VinFuture Grand Prize in Hanoi, along with M. Stanley Whittingham, Martin Green, and Akira Yoshino.

Nobel Prize omission In October 2019, his co-invention of the lithium-ion battery was honored with the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. However, Yazami himself was omitted from the award, which was instead given to Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Goodenough and Whittingham for their cathodes and Yoshino for the first working prototype but omitted the importance of the working graphite anode invented by Yazami. Due to the Nobel Prize's limitation of up to three recipients, Yazami believes the committee had to make a difficult decision between Whittingham and himself. He nevertheless congratulated the three recipients of the prize.