Notre Dame Professor George Howard, Ph.D. Pens Biography of Stan Ovshinsky

Called the “Edison of the 21st Century” and a “Hero of the Planet” by Time magazine, Stan Ovshinsky has created revolutionary technologies. His inventions include batteries for hybrid cars, solar panels that produce electricity even in overcast environments and nanostructured disordered catalytic material to safely store hydrogen. “Stan Ovshinsky and the Hydrogen Economy: Creating a Better World” is the biography of a man and his nearly 50-year mission to create an environmentally clean and renewable energy loop. The good news: the world can get off oil NOW and save itself from Mideast entanglements.

Completion of the biography has taken nearly two years to portray this brilliant, but eccentric, individual. Author George Howard says, “That is why Stan is so interesting. He has gone against convention and in the process he has discovered amazing scientific principles that [will] lead to technologies that will literally save the world.” With the world struggling with serious issues, from pollution to global warming to wars over oil, civilization now has technologies to address these thorny issues. Pollution free energy now comes from a free source — the sun.

Howard’s book reveals a portrait of a dedicated, relentless man. Devoted to his wife Iris, his employees, and his mission to create a total hydrogen loop — solar cells, solid hydrogen storage, nickel metal hydride batteries and fuel cells powered by hydrogen — Stan overcame overwhelming odds in his quest. Without the benefit of a formal higher education, he and Iris discovered new, “impossible” technologies that other scientists dismissed. Due in large part to Stan and Iris’ discoveries, Jennifer M. Granholm, governor of Michigan, recognizes that her state can become the world leader in alternative energy as it once was dominant in the automotive arena.

The book was introduced on May 18, 2006 at the office of Fr. Hesburgh at Notre Dame and is available though http://www.stanov.com/ and http://amazon.com/ . It will be available at leading book retailers the summer of 2006.

Also planned for late summer of this year is a coast-to-coast road trip in a car converted to run on hydrogen. Converted by Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) of Rochester Hills, Michigan, the hydrogen powered Toyota Prius will be driven by a team from Inovateus Development of South Bend, Indiana. Sponsored by the Independent Welding Distributors Cooperative of Indianapolis and Mittler Supply also of South Bend, the trip will demonstrate that the basis for a hydrogen distribution system is already in place across the United States.

George S. Howard is the Joseph Morahan Director of the College Seminar Program and Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Author of 11 other books and over 170 scientific articles and chapters, his specialties include philosophical psychology, research methodology, narrative psychology and environmental psychology. “Stan Ovshinsky and the Hydrogen Economy” is his first biography.

Inovateus Development is a design/build developer of energy efficient homes in the areas of Southwest Michigan and northern Indiana. With special attention to new energy systems, Inovateus incorporates the latest in Green Energy to lower costs and protect the environment.