MIT might not be considered a Hollywood hub, but they do have a prize dubbed the “Oscar for Inventors,” and Dr. Angela Belcher was awarded the statue on Tuesday.
Belcher, 45, a materials chemist and one of the world’s leading scientists in nanotechnology, was named the recipient of the 2013 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, reserved to “recognize individuals who translate their ideas into inventions and innovations that improve the world in which we live.”
Belcher's hybrid organic-inorganic materials used to make environmentally-friendly batteries and clean fuel certainly fall under that category.
“The full implications of Angela Belcher’s work are only beginning to be realized and yet the applications already appear to be far-reaching,” said Harvard Professor Evelyn Hu, co-founder of Belcher’s two companies, in a release. “Her inventions are always linked back to her profound passion and compassion for society, and her desire to improve the quality of life for others.”
Belcher launched Cambrios in 2003 as an effort to commercialize biologically-formed electronic materials, including transparent conductor materials for touch screen and display applications. Four years later, she founded Siluria Technologies, described as “the first company to provide an economically viable and commercially scalable alternative to petroleum.”
In 2002, Belcher was named one of Fortune magazine’s “Top 100 Innovators Under 40,” and soon became a TIME “Hero” in 2006 for her climate change-related research. She even topped Rolling Stone’s list of top 100 people changing the country in 2009, and that only symbolizes the beginning of her praise.
Belcher currently serves as the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering, as well as a faculty member at the Institute’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
Belcher’s work is focused primarily on “convincing biology to work with elements in the periodic table to create new, advanced and environmentally-safe materials,” and she is now striving to create materials to purify water for the agricultural, pharmaceutical and energy industries.
In an effort to inspire future generations, Belcher plans to allocate an undisclosed portion of her $500,000 to the development of outreach programming focused on getting youth excited about science.
“Angela Belcher is an extraordinary inventor,” said Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT program, in a release, commending her for the broad range of her portfolio. “Most impressive is that Angela never fails to remember the immense value of youth mentorship and its ability to inspire the next generation of inventors who, like Angela herself, will continue to improve the world through their discoveries.”
