October 18, 2009

U. at Buffalo Professor, a Prolific Inventor, Is Honored by White House

Douglas Levere, U. at Buffalo

Esther S. Takeuchi, inventor of batteries for implantable heart devices, moved from industry to academe in 2007. President Obama gave her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

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Douglas Levere, U. at Buffalo

Esther S. Takeuchi, inventor of batteries for implantable heart devices, moved from industry to academe in 2007. President Obama gave her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

By Libby Nelson

When Esther S. Takeuchi came to Washington this month so that President Obama could drape a medal around her neck, her hotel was around the corner from the U.S. Patent Office.

The location was a fortuitous choice for the University at Buffalo professor of chemical and biological engineering, who is said to hold the most patents of any woman in the world.

The inventor of the battery that powers cardiac defibrillators, she was one of four people honored with National Medals of