Trailblazer 03: Dr Christina Lampe-Önnerud Battery Innovator

Energy Trailblazers | hosted by Holly Ransom | powered by EY

Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud is a corporate strategist, entrepreneur, inventor, and a global authority in the battery industry. From her childhood days of playing with electrical kits and making fireworks in a bathtub, to pioneering the use of lithium-ion to create more powerful, longer lasting, safer, and cost-effective batteries, Christina has forged a career in ground-breaking technological innovation.

Having considered the vocation of opera singing and turned down a scholarship for an 8-year program for a medical doctorate degree, Christina accepted a scholarship to attend Elmira College in New York, where she studied English literature, business, and the sciences. With encouragement from her father to pursue a career in a STEM field, Christina returned to Sweden and obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Calculus and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Uppsala University in Sweden. In her Masters program at Uppsala, she studied copper deposition on semiconductor wafers and for her Ph.D. she focused on analyzing cathode materials for lithium-polymer batteries while working with a Denmark battery producer, Danionics, who later patented some of the materials Christina studied. She then held a postdoctoral appointment at MIT in Cambridge, MA working for Quantum Energy Technologies.

Christina was one of the youngest partners ever appointed at Arthur D. Little/TIAX, where she ran the company's globally-renowned battery labs, defined strategies for the world's top chemical and battery organizations, and directed high-profile market evaluations. In 2005, Christina founded the lithium-ion battery company Boston-Power Inc, working as the CEO, executive chairman, and international chairman. The company focused on lithium-ion batteries for small personal computing devices. In 2012, she and her husband Per Önnerud started the company Cadenza Innovation where their work aims to develop efficient, safe, lasting, and inexpensive batteries. The lithium ion battery Christina invented is the first to be considered environmentally friendly while capable of providing long lasting energy safely to various types of technology. The battery is intended to be a power source for electric vehicles such as Tesla's cars and electrical grids.

Christina has served as a passionate voice for power and energy issues at government and industrial conferences for over 15 years. She holds 17 patents and has received a range of industry awards including 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT's Magazine of Innovation; Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for Clean Tech, New England region; a Stevie Award for Women in Business as Best Entrepreneur; Mass High Tech Women to Watch; and Top Innovators of 2008 by EDN Magazine. Christina is renowned as a highly analytical leader and a globally sought-after speaker who enthusiastically and eloquently shares her insights about battery technology, climate change and environmental sustainability at industry and government events around the world.

Favorite quotes:

"To me, the sadness is we know where this is heading. And when we look at what we have taken from the pandemic learnings, it is still a lot of big talk in policy and in handing out money... But the joy is we have more awareness that small things can be done that can have a big impact."

"Rarely is there an acknowledgment that none of this is static. And we are in a supercharged transformational time. The transition through the pandemic of going from an old economic paradigm to what we will see in the future – that speed has increased tremendously."

Useful links:

https://cadenzainnovation.com/about/

https://www.ey.com/en_gl/weoy/speakers-and-contributors/christina-lampe-onnerud

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.