#9: Donald Sadoway - MIT, Ambri, Boston Metal, Avanti Battery

<p>Donald Sadoway is a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT where he teaches the most popular freshman course that is offered. His accomplishments include inventing the liquid metal battery for large-scale stationary storage and molten oxide electrolysis for carbon-free metals production. He is the founder of four companies, <a href="https://ambri.com/">Ambri</a>, <a href="https://www.bostonmetal.com/">Boston Metal</a>, Avanti Battery, and Sadoway Labs. His <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy?language=en">TED Talk</a> is animated and inspiring - and with 2.4 million views it is as much about inventing inventors as it is about inventing technology.</p> <p>Professor Sadoway's mission to improve the environment, the success of his lab, the propensity to create spinout companies that commercialize his inventions, and most importantly the way he mentors grad-students and post-docs in his labs to ultimately be future technology leaders. We talk about thinking from first principles, knowing your limitations, thinking ahead of time about environmental impact of material inputs and the social considerations of extracting them, and much more.&nbsp;</p> <p>Check out his free series of lectures on MIT open courseware: <a href="https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/materials-science-and-engineering/3-091sc-introduction-to-solid-state-chemistry-fall-2010/">Intro to Solid State Chemistry</a> This is the course that Bill Gates loved to the point of wanting to meet Professor Sadoway which ultimately led to Bill Gates investing in Ambri, the liquid metal battery technology that Professor Sadoway invented.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>More about Donald</strong></p> <p><strong>Donald R. Sadoway</strong> is the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His <a href="http://b.a.sc/" target="_blank">B.A.Sc</a>. in Engineering Science and Ph.D. in Chemical Metallurgy are from the Un