Ukrainian Canadian Sadoway on Time’s 100 Most Influential List

Toronto-born Donald Sadoway and currently the John F. Elliot Professor of materials Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is on Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People in the World 2012, as announced on April 18.  An Energy Engineer, Dr. Sadoway has invented a battery to store the intermittent energy produced by wind/solar power, a problem which makes these projects not viable.  In other words, a battery which enables drawing of electricity from the Sun when the Sun doesn’t shine.  He also concentrated on making it large, and inexpensive and simple to manufacture.

Prof. Sadoway is a University of Toronto graduate earning three degrees in Engineering Science and Chemical Metallurgy in the 1970s. Of Ukrainian heritage, Donald was raised an Oshawa boy by his second-generation Ukrainian immigrant parents. While studying at the University of Toronto, he was also President of the Ukrainian Students’ Club (USK).

From BBC News, March 8, 2012 by Jane Wakefield:
“[Donald Sadoway] has developed a liquid metal battery which he thinks could finally harness renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to the main electricity grid.  It was just one of several cutting-edge technologies recently on show at the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Los Angeles.

Prof. Sadoway believes that the batteries are just two years away from commercial production and are significantly cheaper to produce than lithium-ion equivalents.

In preparation, he has spun off a company, Liquid Metal Battery Corporation, which has some high profile backers including Microsoft founder Bill Gates. “If we are going to get the country out of the current energy crisis, we can’t drill our way out, we can’t bomb our way out but we can do it in the old-fashioned way - invent our way out,” he said to rapt applause. The TED audience is always on the look out for a wow moment.

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Prof. Donald Sadoway