Angela Belcher: Use Nature Grow Batteries

 

With a bachelors in Creative Studies and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry, Angela Belcher has made a career out of finding surprising and innovative solutions to energy problems.

As head of the Biomolecular Materials Group at MIT, Belcher brings together the fields of materials chemistry, electrical engineering and molecular biology to engineer viruses that can create batteries and clean energy sources. A MacArthur Fellow, she also founded Cambrios Technologies, a Cambridge-based startup focused on applying her work with natural biological systems to the manufacture and assembly of electronic, magnetic and other commercially important materials. TIME magazine named her a climate-change hero in 2007.

Watch an animation of Angela Belcher's life story >>

"Belcher has been tackling a whole new field of science every five years" Jason Grow, TIME