Esther Takeuchi, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Greatbatch Professor of Advanced Power Sources at the University at Buffalo, was one of nine living inventors inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame this month.
Takeuchi has earned more patents than any other woman in the United States. Her 148 patents mostly related to her development of sophisticated power sources for implantable devices. She developed a battery that enabled implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) which earned her a trip to the White House in 2009. Prior to this there was no battery that could provide sufficient energy to ICDs.
“Professor Takeuchi’s ingenuity and pursuit of what is truly innovative has made possible devices that are saving millions of lives,” says Harvey G. Stenger, PhD, dean of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “As a visionary scientist and innovator at UB, and now as an inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, she is taking her rightful place alongside the most famous inventors of our time.”
One impressive aspect of her resume is that she was named to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004. She is just one of 113 women to be elected in the Academy which is less than five percent of the active members. Takeuchi’s says that diversity is important for research because different perspectives are important for the growth of innovation. However, she also credits her success to her husband Kenneth Takeuchi, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the UB Department of Chemistry.
“Women often receive pressure to separate work life and home life,” she said. “However, any creative or leadership endeavor requires thought, concentration and effort. Husbands can encourage their wives by not just tolerating when they contemplate work at home, but by celebrating it.”
Takeuchi holds faculty positions in the UB departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry as well as in the recently formed Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Photo: www.Buffalo.edu/news