Pure Lithium Founder and CEO Emilie Bodoin was recognized by Fastmarkets as Trailblazing Woman of the Year in June, and Pure Lithium in August won the 2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Award in the Chemical and Process Design for Circularity category for its Brine to Battery technology. The accolades add to a growing list of industry praise that includes a Reuters Global Energy Transition award, a Fastmarkets Voltas award for R&D Achievement and a Startup Coup de Coeur award at the World Materials Forum.

Many years before she became an award-winning inventor and entrepreneur at the helm of a battery technology innovator, Emilie Bodoin was, by her own account, an “unusual” kid who amused herself by finding the most difficult problems and solving them.

Scientific research wasn’t the only dream Emilie had growing up in Detroit – she jumped show horses competitively and once even wanted to be an astronaut. After studying at the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University, she held several finance roles in New York, gaining experience that would later serve her well as future CEO and Chairman of Pure Lithium.

But that lifelong drive to solve problems led Emilie naturally into a career in research and development, with roles at Argonne National Laboratory, where she worked as Principal Investigator on a lithium metal production project, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, where she served as an Entrepreneur in Residence. The experience allowed her to connect with some of America’s leading scientists and see the development of world-changing technologies firsthand.

In 2012, Emilie came across a puzzle that would end up defining her career: How can we build a better battery? In an era where new technologies are driving rising demand for energy storage, why is the world still using outdated, limited – and sometimes even dangerous – batteries?

That puzzle led Emilie to found Pure Lithium in 2020 in search of a solution, not just a scientific breakthrough but a practical, affordable new battery to supplant outdated technologies and meet the challenges of today. Her R&D experience and scientific contacts helped her assemble a team of world class researchers and technicians to work the problem, while her financial background guided her through the challenges of founding a disruptive technology startup.

From the beginning of Pure Lithium, she worked hard to foster a culture of inclusion and creativity — where unconventional ideas were not just welcomed but encouraged, and where solutions were freely shared across researchers and teams. She knew that scientific breakthroughs come when the team feels empowered to challenge assumptions and rethink what is possible.

In just six years, Emilie and her team developed and extensively tested a completely new battery, based on lithium metal and vanadium, that beats the globally popular lithium-ion battery on both cost and performance. Along the way, Pure Lithium built an intellectual property portfolio of more than 120 patents and patent applications, with Emilie personally holding six patents related to the battery technology and materials.

While she is motivated by the intellectual challenges of invention, Emilie says her real driving force is to create something that improves people’s lives. She believes that clean, accessible energy is more than science, it can change lives, foster equality and reshape economies.

One thing that sets Emilie apart is the size of her ambition. Pure Lithium’s goal is to completely replace, the most widely used energy storage technology in the world. The company’s patented Brine to Battery technology completely eliminates dependence on world-spanning supply chains for battery materials, dramatically reducing carbon emissions caused by thousands of miles of shipping.

Emilie has to be much more than a scientist. In her role as chairman and CEO of Pure Lithium, she has been responsible for building up a company from scratch, attracting investors, securing business partnerships, and protecting the company’s intellectual property. In just six years, she has led the company its initial research phase to the cusp of commercial production. After perfecting and extensively testing the Pure Lithium battery technology in Boston, the company is moving into the prototyping phase at its new facilities in Chicago.

While being a female scientist and CEO in a traditionally male dominated industry has presented many challenges, Emilie says it has also helped her learn to forge her own path and think differently about issues like fundraising, innovation and leadership.

“Only 2% of woman receive venture capital funding, so in every investor pitch I know I have to be 10 times better than the competition to have a mere shot,” she said.
Emilie, a sought-out speaker at technology and business events, never misses an opportunity to encourage more women to seek important roles in science, innovation, and business. By sharing her story, and the milestones she has reached as both as a patent holding scientist and company founder, she hopes to inspire other women to break barriers and harness their intelligence and ambition to achieve extraordinary things. Her role as the Founder and CEO of an innovative deep-tech company gives her a visible and credible platform to advocate for what women can – and already do – contribute to the future of science and innovation.

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