Jay Whitacre is the latest recipient of the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, which honors mid-career inventors who have also demonstrated a commitment to mentorship in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). PHOTO: LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM

The Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI™) Batteries are based on a simple idea: in order to meet the challenges of the world’s growing energy needs and increase the use of renewable power, we need large-scale energy storage systems that are high performance, safe, sustainable and cost-effective. Jay Whitacre set out to solve this problem and discovered a simple and elegant solution that is a twist on a 200 year-old technology: saltwater batteries. Using abundant, nontoxic materials and modern low cost manufacturing techniques, the AHI batteries are now ready to take on the global energy storage challenge. And have also won Whitacre the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.

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