He may have been overlooked for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but the man whose technology rests in more than 95% of all lithium-ion batteries has been recognised for his work in bringing the chemistry to a global market.
Morocco’s Professor Rachid Yazami was given the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinguishment for his work in inventing ta graphite anode for lithium-ion batteries.
The 66-year-old scientist made the breakthrough 40 years ago, and despite not patenting the technology has gone on to hold more than 150 patents on battery technology.
Yazami founded The Battery Intelligence Company in Singapore, and has worked with the French National Scientific Research Centre in Paris and is a principal scientist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Yazami is the founder of CFX battery (now Contour Energy Systems) a primary and rechargeable lithium and fluoride battery start-up company in California, US.
Last October, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to professors John B. Goodenough (the oldest recipient of the prize at 95), M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino.
Yazami shared a stage with Goodenough and Yoshino, along with Yoshio Nishi, in 2014 when they collected the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering from the National Academy of Enginnering for their “significant contributions” to the lithium-ion battery.
