He is a highly cited researcher and the inventor or co-inventor on 66 patents, several of which have been licensed to industry on an international scale.
NAPERVILLE, IL, July 11, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Michael Makepeace Thackeray has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individual profiles are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Drawing on five decades of expertise in the field of materials chemistry, Dr. Thackeray has contributed to advancing battery science and technology over a career that has spanned two continents: in South Africa with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) from 1973 to 1993 and in the United States with the Argonne National Laboratory since 1994.
As a materials chemist at the CSIR, Dr. Thackeray's early research on energy materials was prompted by the Middle East oil crisis in the mid-1970s and an awareness that electrified transportation could ultimately compete with the internal combustion engine and its costly polluting fuels. In 1980, sensing a bright future for lithium batteries, Dr. Thackeray turned his attention away from high-temperature (350 degrees C) sodium and metal chloride systems to focus on lithium and metal oxide electrochemical couples that operate at room temperature.
Dr. Thackeray's battery research garnered the attention of the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago, and in 1994 he was invited to join its Battery Department. Upon arrival, he was asked by the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium, along with partners 3M and Hydro-Quebec, to improve the electrochemical properties of the vanadium oxide cathode of a lithium polymer battery that had been under development for many years – a challenge that was successfully accomplished and implemented by modifying the composition and structure of the cathode material.
Dr. Thackeray's research on lithium-ion batteries, which today constitute a multibillion-dollar market, has been instrumental in their development; they are the dominant power source for portable devices, such as cell phones and laptop computers, and they are the preferred power source for advanced hybrid- and all-electric vehicles.
In total, Dr. Thackeray's research has resulted in 248 publications. He is a highly cited researcher and the inventor or co-inventor on 66 patents, several of which have been licensed to industry on an international scale. Also notably, in 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush invited Dr. Thackeray to the White House for a round-table discussion on battery technology.
A recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Career Excellence Award in 2019, as well as several Lifetime Achievement Awards from the organizations with which he has been affiliated, Dr. Thackeray attributes his success to his curiosity and open-minded approach toward life. He also believes that his ability to identify and seize opportunities has been instrumental in his achievements. For his contributions as a South African to world science and technology, he earned recognition on a commemorative wall and with a street name at Africa's first internationally accredited science park, The Innovation Hub, in Pretoria.
A graduate of the University of Cape Town, where he received a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Chemistry, Dr. Thackeray lives by two mottos: "Never give up" and "Trust your instincts".
Dr. Thackeray is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA, 2021), and a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK, 2022), the National Academy of Inventors (USA, 2021), the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study (South Africa, 2018), and the Electrochemical Society (USA, 2014).
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