Nobel Prize in Chemistry Honors Shift Toward a 'Fossil Fuel-Free World'

The Three Winners Developed Lithium-Ion Batteries that Made Electric Vehicles and Battery Storage for Solar and Wind Power Possible  As Climate Solutions.

When the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries, it noted the importance of their research in making "a fossil fuel-free world possible," with electric vehicles and renewable energy storage helping cut emissions that drive climate change.

The great twist in the story is that the Nobel recipient cited for making the "first functional lithium battery," M. Stanley Whittingham, came to his discovery in the 1970s as a research scientist in the laboratories of Exxon, the corporation that later would lead the vastly successful effort to deny climate change.  ExxonMobil faces a trial in New York later this month for allegedly misleading shareholders about the risks climate change poses to the company—and their investments.

Whittingham was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with John B. Goodenough, a professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and Akira Yoshino, a chemist at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan.

Read more at Nobel Prize in Chemistry Honors Shift Toward a 'Fossil Fuel-Free World' — with Exxon Connections