The European Patent Office (EPO) announced today that U.S. Scientist Esther Sans Takeuchi has won the 2018 European Inventor Award in the “Non-EPO countries” category, one of the five award categories. The award was presented to her by the European Patent Office (EPO) at a ceremony held today in Paris, Saint-Germain-en-Laye attended by some 600 guests from the areas of politics, business, intellectual property and science. Of the four U.S. scientists nominated for the award, Sans Takeuchi, a professor at Stony Brook University, is the only American to bring home Europe’s most prestigious prize of innovation this year.

With the award, Sans Takeuchi was honored for developing the compact batteries that power tiny, implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) – devices that detect and correct irregular, potentially fatal, heart rhythms. Her lithium silver vanadium oxide (“Li/SVO”) battery extended the power-source lifetime for ICDs to around five years, considerably longer than its predecessors, thus reducing the number of surgeries patients needed to undergo to replace them. Her invention led not only to an advance in battery chemistry, but also enabled the production and widespread adoption of ICDs and significantly improved patient well-being… Continue reading.