Media Advisory: In Videoconference with Latvian Students, UB Top Inventor Will Discuss Science in U.S., Being Latvian-American

It's hardly newsworthy when professors lecture to students. But tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009) at 9 a.m., Esther S. Takeuchi, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research at the University at Buffalo, will be in a conference room on UB's suburban Buffalo campus addressing 600 medical students thousands of miles away in Riga, Latvia.

Staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Latvia invited Takeuchi to do the videoconference, when she was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama at a White House ceremony last month. Takeuchi's parents were Latvian immigrants to the U.S.

The videoconference will take place in Room 200 G in Baldy Hall on the UB North Campus.

Takeuchi won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor awarded in the U.S. for technological achievement, in part for her development of the lithium/silver vanadium oxide battery while she was a scientist at Greatbatch, Inc.; the battery was a major factor in bringing implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) into production in the late 1980s. ICDs shock the heart into a normal rhythm when it goes into fibrillation.

During the videoconference, Takeuchi, an expert on batteries and professor in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences, will discuss her scientific career. She is believed to be the woman who holds the most patents in the U.S.

Also during the videoconference, Takeuchi will exchange greetings with U.S. Ambassador Judith Garber. She will be introduced by the head of Riga Stradins University's science department, Uldis Berkis.

Press arrangements: Ellen Goldbaum in the UB Office of University Communications at 716-645-4605 and on-site.