Chemist John B. Goodenough, one of the key scientists in the development of the lithium-ion battery, passed away on Sunday at the age of 100. The University of Texas, where he had worked since the 1980s, has announced. The university mourns the passing of “a brilliant but humble inventor.” The lithium-ion battery is used today in products such as mobile phones and electric cars.
Goodenough was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97. He was awarded along with fellow chemists M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. The three scientists built on each other’s work in developing the lithium-ion battery. In particular, Goodenough was able to improve the power of the battery, eventually making the lithium-ion battery a mass product, used not only in phones and electric cars, but also in products such as laptops, tablets and defibrillators.
John B. Goodenough was born in Jena, Germany, in 1922, but moved to the United States at an early age, where his theologian father was offered a chair. During World War II, he served in the United States Army as a meteorologist, after which he was able to graduate as a physicist thanks to a veteran’s scholarship.
He began his scientific career at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and moved to the University of Oxford in the late 1970s, where he managed a laboratory, taught, and began his battery research. On the wall of his lab in Austin he had a tapestry of the Last Supper. The apostles in conversation reminded him of scientists disputing a theory, he said The New York Times.
Also read this piece regarding the Nobel Prize in 2019: No mobile phones without this battery