Donald R. Sadoway, Professor of Materials Chemistry Emeritus, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Donald R. Sadoway is Professor of Materials Chemistry Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science and Ph.D. in Chemical Metallurgy are from the University of Toronto. He joined the MIT faculty in 1978. The author of over 180 scientific papers and inventor on 37 U.S. patents, his research is directed towards batteries for grid-scale storage and electric vehicles and towards environmentally sound metals extraction technologies. His accomplishments include the invention of the liquid metal battery for large-scale stationary storage and the invention of molten oxide electrolysis for carbon-free metals production. He is the founder of six companies: Ambri, Boston Metal, Avanti Battery, Pure Lithium, Sadoway Labs, and Lunar Resources. Online videos of his chemistry lectures hosted by MIT OpenCourseWare extend his impact on engineering education far beyond the lecture hall. Viewed almost 2.5 million times, his TED talk is as much about inventing inventors as it is about inventing technology. In 2012 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.