Stanford R. Ovshinsky – USA

Linked with Made in America.

Stanford R. Ovshinsky (born November 24, 1922) is an American inventor and scientist who has been granted approximately 400 patents over the last fifty years, mostly in the areas of energy or information. Many of his inventions have come to play central roles in modern society. Among the most prominent are: his environmentally friendly nickel-metal-hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; continuous web multi-junction flexible thin-film solar energy panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD computer memories; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change electronic memories. Ovshinsky opened the scientific field of amorphous and disordered materials in the course of his research in the 1940s and 50s in neurophysiology, neural disease, the nature of intelligence in mammals and machines, and cybernetics. Amorphous silicon semiconductors have become the basis of many technologies and industries. Ovshinsky is also distinguished in being self-taught, without formal college or graduate training. Throughout his life, his love for science and his social convictions were the primary engines for his inventive work … (full text).

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He says: “The ages of mankind have been classified by the materials they use—the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Age of Silicon. We are at the dawn of the Hydrogen Age, what is more, the hydrogen economy is happening already” … (full text, Nov 30th 2006).

His Bio on OVONIC.com.

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Stanford R. Ovshinsky – USA

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He says also: … « We believe the functionality of the Ovonic Quantum Control device will enable it to replace transistors and result in new circuitry. It will also be used in the Ovonic Cognitive processor, positioning it to augment and increase performance of today’s computers and potentially become the preferred computational system, either binary or nonbinary. It can also be used in combination with the Ovonic phase change memory, Ovonic threshold switch and the Ovonic cognitive computer device. Therefore all thin-film computers would be made possible, » … (full text, 6 June 2006).

TIME.com has put him on its heroes-gallery, MARCH 1, 1999.

A husband and wife team has been working together since 1960 to solve the energy woes of today. As early as this year, world oil production will peak out and begin to fall off dramatically, causing fuel shortages and gas prices three or more times higher than we pay today. « Hydrogen has been called the ultimate fuel and the sun is the ultimate source of energy. If you tap into that, and you should, it changes the world beyond anything anybody could expect. » Stan Ovshinsky 2002 … (full text, not dated – in: Stan and Iris with the Hydrogen loop diagram in 1960).

Video is from Google video: Installing clean, reliable, inflation-proof solar power … (full text).

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Stanford R. Ovshinsky has spent 40 years — and millions of dollars in backing from various partners — pursuing his dream. He wanted to build a huge machine that would make giant sheets of material that can generate solar power. “I said we are going to make it by the mile,” he recalls. “Nobody believed me, not even in my own company.” Today, Mr. Ovshinsky, 84 years old, finds himself running his factory at full capacity and overwhelmed with orders. His company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc., is the largest U.S.-owned maker of photovoltaic materials, which convert sunlight to electricity. The company is a pioneer in an exploding global industry selling $15 billion a year of what’s called “PV.” The company’s mammoth machine extends the length of a football field … (full text, Nov. 28, 2006).

… My late father and I held stock in Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) which turned into Ovonics because we were great fans of Ovshinsky. Unfortunately General Motors and other companies made life difficult for him (and ENER) because much of his research was to enable technologies that would lessen our need for petroleum based products. I hope this new memory does well and I know my father, wherever he is, will be pleased with Ovshinsky’s success. (full text, April 1st, 2008).

Find him and his publications on MetaFilter.com; on Visual wikipedia; on PatentDocs; on IMDb; on ebay; on NationMasterEncyclopedia; on amazon; on yahoo glue; on flickr‘s photo sharing; on RAD; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a « total crock of shit, » saying his views had no bearing on GM’s commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles … // … Watching the clips should energize the viewers to take action to prevent the GM-Chrysler bail out as currently proposed. The best use of US Treasury money would be to buy a controlling interest in Chrysler and turn it over to a really green management team which would rename it as the Chrysler Electric Auto Company (CEAC). CEAC would make only electric plug-in and electric plug-in hybrids. Over time, it would repurchase the older cars and trucks and convert them to electric vehicles. The full story can be read at a mock website of Chrysler: Chrysler Electric Auto Company. Summary of video clips and films: … (full text of Does Detroit Deserve a Handout? November 19, 2008).

… There also are rumors circulating that GM wants to acquire ECD, which is ironic, as Ovshinsky developed the batteries used in GM’s ill-fated electric-car venture in the late 1990s. GM’s EV-1, the first modern electric car, was canceled unceremoniously after California regulators watered down the state’s demand for zero-emissions cars. GM’s move, often seen as an affront to the green-car movement, was memorialized in the 2007 movie Who Killed the Electric Car? GM and other American automakers « were late in adapting » to the necessity for electric propulsion of vehicles « despite my anguished pleas, » Ovshinsky said in a recent interview with Green Car Advisor. « The Japanese took in nickel-metal hydrides well before the American companies, » he said, without a hint of the vengeance that could be justifiable, given that Ovshinsky has been advocating and developing electric and hydrogen-powered automobiles for decades. Now the American automakers « have to make it up, » he said. « It’s terrible, but it’s an opportunity to show inventiveness and tap the can-do, American-work-ethic battle cry. » While ECD essentially has shelved its decades of efforts to develop a completely hydrogen-powered vehicle, Ovshinsky still believes that hydrogen fuel is destined to play an important role in automotive propulsion in the years ahead. « But it will be on a different kind of basis than we were trying to develop, » he said. Hydrogen « doesn’t need to run the engine » … (full text, July 7, 2008).

links:

the green issue: INVENT, April 20, 2008;

Items found by key word renewable energy:

Categories on wikipedia: Biomass; Renewable energy as category; American engineers; American inventors; Inventors by nationality; Jewish inventors; Science and technology in the United States; Lithuanian-American Jews.