Angela Belcher, an MIT professor and a world renowned expert in the field of nanotechnology is awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize and $500,000. The award honors outstanding inventors in their dedication to improve the world by technological inventions.
Belcher, who is also a member of the faculty at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, described the feeling as fantastic, and she feels very fortunate to have won considering the great personalities who have previously received the award.
She is also head of the Biomolecular Materials Group at MIT, and says that she gets inspiration from Mother Nature’s capability to create materials – such as snails growing its own shell. In the laboratory, she merges inorganic materials with organic materials to make novel electronic components for many applications, like environmentally friendly batteries, solar cells, medical diagnosis, and fuel, to list a few things.
Executive director from the Lemelson-MIT Program, Joshua Schuler describes Belcher as an extraordinary inventor who takes simple ideas and applies it to make remarkable collections of inventions that benefits many segments of the society, and the environment. Most impressively is her dedication in mentoring the youth, and inspiring the next generation of inventors to keep on improving the world with their discoveries.
Angela Belcher’s motivation initially came when she was spending time near the ocean when she was doing her undergraduate study at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She was studying the shell of the abalone, and this also become the focus of her PhD thesis.
Her most recent innovation is a lithium-ion battery which is powered by engineered viruses. The batteries are said to have the same power and capacity as of rechargeable batteries that are high-tech and are used in plug-in hybrid cars. The same batteries can also be used for other electronic devices.
