DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF SCIENCE, HONORIS CAUSA

M. Stanley Whittingham is a distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at SUNY Binghamton, and is the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Laureate. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Oxford University, where he is an honorary fellow of New College. 

He has been active in Li-batteries since 1971, when he won the Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society for his work on the solid electrolyte beta-alumina. In 1972, he joined Exxon’s Corporate Research Laboratory and discovered the role of intercalation in battery reactions, which resulted in the first commercial lithium rechargeable batteries that were built by Exxon Enterprises. In 1988, he returned to academia at SUNY Binghamton to initiate a program in materials chemistry. He initiated a graduate program in materials science and engineering. He was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship in the Physics Department of the University of Tokyo in 1993. From 1993-1999, he was vice provost for research. In 2004, he received the Battery Division Research Award. He is presently director of the NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage based at Binghamton. In 2012, he received the Yeager Award of the International Battery Association for his lifetime contributions to battery research; in 2015, he received the Lifetime Contributions to Battery Technology Award from NAATBaaT; in 2017 the Senior Research Award from Solid State Ionics; and in 2018, was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the Turnbull Award from the Materials Research Society. He is a fellow of both the Electrochemical Society and the Materials Research Society. He is vice chair, board of directors of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NYBEST).