Power of SUNY

UB Battery Researcher with More Patents than Any Other Woman is Inducted Into National Inventors Hall of Fame

Esther Takeuchi, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Greatbatch Professor of Advanced Power Sources at the University at Buffalo, in March 2011 was one of nine living inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which honors legendary inventors whose innovations have changed the world.

Takeuchi has earned more patents than any other woman in the U.S., 148 at last count and growing, most of them related to her pioneering development of sophisticated power sources for implantable devices, now a booming multibillion-dollar business.

Takeuchi developed the battery that enabled implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs), a feat that brought her to the White House in the fall of 2009 where President Obama presented her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. ICDs are the leading therapy for treating serious cardiac arrhythmia, with more than 300,000 lifesaving devices implanted per year. There was no prior battery technology that could provide the essential energy needed to bring ICDs from concept to reality.