The journey of Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham to the Chemistry Nobel Prize
BINGHAMTON, N.Y.—In the corner of the hall on the second floor of the Innovative Technologies Complex campus at Binghamton University, theres an office decorated with balloons. A modest way to celebrate Dr. M. Stanley Whittinghams 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize.
Now 78 years old, Whittingham is still excited about batteries, visiting laboratories, and giving lectures around the globe.
“So people say, When are you going to retire?'” Whittingham said. And hell reply, “I like what Im doing. Im gonna keep doing it.”
And his wife, Dr. Georgina Whittingham, who is a professor of foreign languages, says the same.
“We keep teaching,” he said. “And my doctor says, Dont retire.'”
For more than 30 years, Whittingham has been working at Binghamton University in different positions. Currently, hes a distinguished professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering.
Its a place he loves.
“Theres a lot more teamwork here,” he said.
Hes a busy man—even more so since being announced as a key figure in history. What won him the Nobel Prize was that he was the first to develop the lithium battery in the 1970s at Exxon.
British at Heart
He came from a small town—Lincolnshire, England—where his high-school teacher got him excited about chemistry.
“Those days, you could make chemicals, blow things up, and things that you are not allowed to do,” he said with a laugh. “So I got excited about chemistry.”
He then made it to Oxford and finished his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.
At the end of his Ph.D., unlike many colleagues who went to North America and Canada, he decided to go to Stanford University.
“I wanted to go somewhere with sunshine,” he said with a laugh. “Im still British at heart.”
After being there for two months, he was asked to take charge of the material labs of the Department of Defense for the next two years.
“Very successful time, I should say. During those two years, something even more important happened,” Whittingham said. “I met my wife at Stanford.”
“We didnt waste any time. Within, I think, nine months, we were married.”
Next-Generation Batteries
After finishing his postdoctoral research in two years, he went to work for Exxon.
“I was hired to work on energy, but not petroleum or chemicals,” he said.
With a keen interest in solar energy and fuel cells, he started researching batteries.
“We wanted to build the next-generation battery,” he said. “The big interest was electronic vehicles because of the gas crisis in the U.S.”
So they started building batteries in test tubes. At that time, they didnt have any unique environment, advanced machines, or even theories on what they might discover.
“We knew there was something there. We didnt know how big it would be.”
Whittingham never thought his invention would change the world.
“Even 15 years ago, the phone, youd need a whole briefcase to carry it. And I think lithium batteries helped all these little devices.”
In the 1980s, John Goodenough, using the foundation that Whittingham laid, made another breakthrough to even more powerful batteries.
With a physicists eyes, Goodenough set out to test something that they thought wouldnt work, Whittingham said.
Following that, in 1985, Akira Yoshino created the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery.
After decades, these three scientists who changed the world have been recognized with the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize.
And its all about perseverance.
