For Immediate Release

October 9, 2019

United University Professions, the nation’s largest higher education union, congratulates UUP Binghamton Chapter member M. Stanley Whittingham on winning the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Whittingham, a distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science at Binghamton University, received the Nobel Prize for his pioneering research that led to the development of the lithium-ion battery. Whittingham is a longtime UUP member who has served on the Binghamton Chapter’s executive board.

“UUP is proud of Professor Whittingham, a groundbreaking chemist and a strong unionist who understands and reflects the importance of being a union member in word and deed,” said statewide UUP President Fred Kowal. “Professor Whittingham is a shining example of what makes SUNY great—its people. We stand and applaud Professor Whittingham for winning this esteemed award.”

Whittingham shares the award with researchers John B. Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University in Japan.

“I am overcome with gratitude at receiving this award, and I honestly have so many people to thank I don’t know where to begin,” Whittingham said in a Binghamton University press release. “The research I have been involved with for over 30 years has helped advance how we store and use energy at a foundational level, and it is my hope that this recognition will help to shine a much-needed light on the nation’s energy future.”

Whittingham has been at Binghamton University since 1988 and has earned a reputation nationally and internationally as an innovative scientist. He has been a world leader in the development of lithium-ion batteries; he holds the original patent on the concept of using intercalation chemistry in high-power density, highly reversible lithium batteries, which laid the foundation for discoveries that led to the lithium-ion batteries used today.

Since coming to Binghamton, he has received more than $7 million in federal research grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. At Binghamton, Whittingham helped build the university’s Materials Science and Engineering Program.