OBIT FOR BATTERY BRAIN

Detroit Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry memorialized the life of Iris Ovshinsky, battery technology pioneer:

- Last week Iris Ovshinsky tragically died while swimming near her home in Farmington Hills. Not only was she half of perhaps the most important team of scientists in Michigan history, she was half of an incredible love story.
- If you have a laptop computer, there's a good chance it's running on a nickel-metal-hydride battery, and you have Iris and her husband, Stan, to thank for inventing it. They met at a party back in the 1950s, locked eyes and hearts, and were seldom separated by more than a few arms' lengths after that.

- They founded a company that, in many ways, was more revolutionary than Microsoft, though, alas, they were always better scientists than businessmen.
- They were pioneers in solar cell research and alternative fuel technology. A word from their last name, Ovonics, is in Webster's Dictionary. Iris and Stan were featured prominently in this year's movie Who Killed the Electric Car?