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Dr. Iris Ovshinsky Remembered
Dr. Iris M. Ovshinsky, co-founder, vice president
and a director of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.(ECD
Ovonics), died August 16, at her home in Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan. She was 79.
Iris and her husband and fellow scientist, Stan
Ovshinsky, founded ECD Ovonics in 1960 to research
and use new science and technology to solve serious
societal problems. Since the company’s founding,
Iris was a true pioneer and played a leading role
with Stan in all areas based on his inventions
in amorphous and disordered materials. Under their
leadership, ECD Ovonics has developed into a multi-disciplinary
business, scientific, technical and manufacturing
organization in the fields of alternative energy
generation, energy storage and information technologies.
“We are greatly saddened by Iris’s death,”
says Robert C. Stempel, chairman and CEO of ECD
Ovonics. “She was a woman of great vision
and an amazing human being. She built a corporate
culture which helped us grow as a company. All
of us in the ECD Ovonics community will greatly
miss her.”
“Iris fought for peace, equality and justice
with empathy for everyone. She found great happiness
in creating new industries that resulted in high-value
jobs,” says her daughter Robin Dibner. “She
was full of life and sparkle, bringing joy to
all who met her.”
Iris graduated with a B.A. in zoology from Swarthmore
College, an M.S. in biology from the University
of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from
Boston University. She was a member of Sigma Xi,
an associate member of the University of Michigan
Center for Theoretical Physics and a member of
the editorial board. In 2000, she was named “Hero
of Chemistry” by the American Chemical Society
along with Stan as “chemical innovators whose
industrial work in chemistry or chemical engineering
has made significant and lasting contributions
to global human welfare.” In 2003, Iris was
inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni
of her alma mater, Boston University. Recently,
she and Stan were profiled in the documentary
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Iris is survived by her husband, Stan; their five
children Robin and Steven Dibner, Harvey, Dale
and Ben Ovshinsky; and four grandchildren, Natasha
and Noah Ovshinsky, Sylvie Polsky and Pablo Dibner.
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