John Goodenough

John B. Goodenough
Born	John Bannister Goodenough 25 7, 1922
Birthplace	Jena, Germany
Died	Template:Death date and age Austin, Texas, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Physicist, materials scientist, professor
Known for	Development of the lithium-ion battery
Education	Ph.D. in Physics, University of Chicago
Awards	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019), National Medal of Science, Copley Medal

John Bannister Goodenough (July 25, 1922 – June 25, 2023) was an American physicist, materials scientist, and Nobel laureate whose work on the lithium-ion battery fundamentally transformed modern technology. Born to American parents in Jena, Germany, Goodenough studied mathematics at Yale University before serving in the United States military during the Second World War. He later earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago and spent decades conducting research in solid-state physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory before moving to the University of Oxford and, ultimately, to the University of Texas at Austin. It was at Oxford in 1980 that Goodenough identified the cathode material — lithium cobalt oxide — that made rechargeable lithium-ion batteries practical, a breakthrough that would go on to power everything from mobile phones and laptop computers to electric vehicles. In 2019, at the age of 97, he became the oldest person ever to receive a Nobel Prize when he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of the lithium-ion battery. Goodenough continued working at the University of Texas at Austin until his death at the age of 100, leaving a scientific legacy that reshaped the global energy landscape and enabled the wireless revolution of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Early Life

John Bannister Goodenough was born on July 25, 1922, in Jena, Germany, to American parents. His father was a professor of the history of religion at Yale University. Goodenough grew up in the United States, where he faced challenges in his early education. He struggled with dyslexia as a child, a condition that was not well understood or widely diagnosed at the time. Despite these difficulties, Goodenough demonstrated strong intellectual abilities from an early age and developed a deep interest in the natural sciences and mathematics.

Goodenough attended the Groton School, a prestigious preparatory school in Massachusetts. His formative years were shaped in part by the upheaval of the Great Depression and the gathering clouds of the Second World War. After completing his preparatory education, he enrolled at Yale University, where he studied mathematics. The trajectory of his academic career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, during which he served as a meteorologist in the United States Army Air Corps. His wartime service took him to the Azores, where he gathered weather data that supported Allied military operations. The experience of military service and the broader context of the war effort deepened his sense of purpose regarding the potential of science and technology to address large-scale challenges facing society.

Education

Following his wartime service, Goodenough returned to academic life. He had earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Yale University before the war. After the war, he pursued graduate studies in physics at the University of Chicago, one of the foremost centers of physics research in the world at the time. The University of Chicago's physics department had been at the heart of the Manhattan Project and housed some of the most accomplished physicists of the era. It was in this intellectually stimulating environment that Goodenough completed his doctorate in physics. His doctoral research provided him with a strong foundation in solid-state physics and materials science, fields that would define his subsequent career. The rigorous training he received at Chicago equipped him with the theoretical tools and experimental methods that he would later apply to his groundbreaking work on battery materials and magnetic materials.

Career

Lincoln Laboratory (1952–1976)

After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, Goodenough joined the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952, where he would remain for more than two decades. At Lincoln Laboratory, he conducted research on the magnetic properties of transition metal oxides, work that contributed significantly to the development of random-access memory (RAM) for computers. His studies of the electronic and magnetic properties of materials during this period laid the theoretical groundwork that would later inform his understanding of cathode materials for batteries. During his time at MIT, Goodenough established himself as an authority on the physics of materials, publishing influential work on the Goodenough-Kanamori rules, which describe the superexchange interactions in magnetic materials. These rules became a standard reference in solid-state physics and remain widely used in the field.

His research at Lincoln Laboratory spanned a broad range of topics in solid-state physics, including the study of cooperative phenomena in solids and the electronic structure of transition metal compounds. This extensive experience with transition metal oxides proved essential to his later breakthroughs in battery technology, as the same class of materials would become central to the development of lithium-ion cathodes.

University of Oxford (1976–1986)

In 1976, Goodenough moved to the University of Oxford in England, where he was appointed head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory. It was during his tenure at Oxford that he made the discovery that would ultimately earn him the Nobel Prize. In 1980, Goodenough identified lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO₂) as a suitable cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries. This was a critical advance because it demonstrated that a metal oxide could reversibly intercalate lithium ions at a sufficiently high voltage to make a practical rechargeable battery possible.

The significance of this discovery cannot be overstated. Prior to Goodenough's work, M. Stanley Whittingham at Exxon had demonstrated the concept of a rechargeable lithium battery using titanium disulfide as the cathode, but the energy density and voltage of that system were limited. By substituting a layered oxide material — lithium cobalt oxide — Goodenough showed that the cathode voltage could be roughly doubled, a breakthrough that dramatically increased the energy storage capacity of the battery. This higher voltage cathode was subsequently paired with a carbon-based anode by Akira Yoshino of Asahi Kasei Corporation in Japan, creating the lithium-ion battery configuration that was first commercialized by Sony in 1991 and became the dominant rechargeable battery technology worldwide.

During his years at Oxford, Goodenough also investigated other oxide materials that could serve as cathodes, including lithium manganese oxide spinels, further expanding the palette of materials available for battery designers. His work at Oxford established the scientific principles upon which the entire lithium-ion battery industry was built.

University of Texas at Austin (1986–2023)

In 1986, Goodenough joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as the Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering. He continued his research on battery materials and solid-state ionics at UT Austin for more than three decades, remaining actively engaged in research well into his nineties.

At UT Austin, Goodenough continued to push the boundaries of battery technology. He and his research group investigated lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) as a cathode material in the late 1990s, identifying it as a safer, more environmentally benign, and more thermally stable alternative to lithium cobalt oxide. Lithium iron phosphate batteries became important in applications requiring high levels of safety and long cycle life, including electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. This work further cemented Goodenough's status as the preeminent figure in battery materials research.

In his later years at UT Austin, Goodenough pursued research into solid-state batteries, which use a solid electrolyte instead of the liquid electrolyte found in conventional lithium-ion batteries. He believed that solid-state batteries could offer higher energy density, greater safety, and longer lifetimes than existing lithium-ion technology, and he continued to publish research on this topic into his late nineties. His continued productivity and intellectual engagement at such an advanced age drew widespread attention and admiration from the scientific community.

Goodenough was a prolific researcher throughout his career, authoring or co-authoring more than 800 scientific papers and several books on the physics and chemistry of materials. His body of work spanned magnetism, solid-state physics, electrochemistry, and materials science, reflecting the breadth and depth of his scientific interests.

Impact on Modern Technology

The lithium-ion battery technology that Goodenough helped create has had a transformative impact on modern life. Lithium-ion batteries power the majority of portable electronic devices, including cell phones, laptop computers, tablets, and digital cameras. They are also the dominant energy storage technology in electric vehicles, a sector that has grown rapidly in the 21st century as countries around the world seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. In addition, lithium-ion batteries play an increasingly important role in grid-scale energy storage, helping to integrate intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power into electrical grids.

The commercial lithium-ion battery industry, which traces its origins directly to Goodenough's 1980 discovery of the lithium cobalt oxide cathode, has grown into a multi-billion-dollar global enterprise. The technology has been credited with enabling the "wireless revolution" — the proliferation of portable, battery-powered electronic devices that has reshaped communication, commerce, entertainment, and daily life around the world.

Personal Life

John Goodenough married Irene Wiseman in 1951. The couple remained married until Irene's death in 2016. Goodenough was known among his colleagues and students for his warmth, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to engage with scientists at all stages of their careers. He continued to come to his office and laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin regularly even after passing the age of 90, maintaining an active research program and mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

Goodenough died on June 25, 2023, in Austin, Texas, one month before what would have been his 101st birthday. His death was announced by the University of Texas at Austin, which issued a statement mourning the loss of a scientist who had "changed the world for the better." His passing prompted tributes from scientists, engineers, and institutions around the world, reflecting the profound impact of his work on both science and society.

Recognition

Goodenough received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, reflecting the significance of his contributions to science and technology. The most prominent of these was the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." At 97 years old at the time of the award, Goodenough became the oldest Nobel laureate in history, a record that stood at the time of his death.

Among his many other honors, Goodenough received the National Medal of Science from the United States government, recognizing his contributions to the physical sciences. He was also awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society of London, one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific awards in the world. In 2013, he received the Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize of engineering," which he shared with Yoshino, Whittingham, and Rachid Yazami for their contributions to lithium-ion battery technology.

Goodenough was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a foreign member of the Royal Society. The breadth of his recognition across multiple scientific and engineering academies reflected the interdisciplinary nature of his work, which spanned physics, chemistry, and engineering.

In 2019, the announcement of his Nobel Prize was widely covered by international media. The Nobel Committee credited the three laureates with creating "a rechargeable world" and noted that the lithium-ion battery had "laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society." The University of Texas at Austin celebrated the award, noting Goodenough's long tenure and continued contributions to the university's research mission.

Legacy

John Goodenough's legacy is defined by the transformative impact of the lithium-ion battery on modern civilization. The technology he helped create has become indispensable to daily life, powering the portable electronics and electric vehicles that have reshaped how people communicate, work, and travel. His identification of lithium cobalt oxide as a cathode material in 1980 provided the critical advance that made high-energy rechargeable batteries practical, and his subsequent work on lithium iron phosphate and solid-state battery materials continued to push the field forward for decades.

Beyond his specific scientific discoveries, Goodenough's career exemplified a model of sustained, curiosity-driven research. He published groundbreaking work across multiple fields, from magnetism to electrochemistry, over a period of more than seven decades. His willingness to change fields and pursue new challenges — moving from solid-state physics at MIT to battery chemistry at Oxford to advanced energy storage at UT Austin — demonstrated an intellectual flexibility that is often cited as a model for scientific careers.

The IEEE, in its tribute to Goodenough following his death, noted that his technology "is used in electric cars and laptops" and that his contributions had shaped the trajectory of modern energy technology. The University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate, described his work as having "helped power modern electronics, including cell phones, laptop computers and electric cars," and credited him with sparking "the wireless revolution."

Goodenough's influence also extended through the many students and researchers he mentored during his long career. Scientists trained in his laboratory went on to hold positions at universities, national laboratories, and technology companies around the world, carrying forward his research methods and intellectual approach. His continued presence in the laboratory until the very end of his life served as an inspiration to generations of younger scientists.

At the time of his death, the Associated Press described Goodenough as a "co-creator of the revolutionary lithium battery" whose work had "transformed technology." The New York Times, in its obituary, detailed the arc of his career from wartime meteorologist to Nobel laureate, noting the improbable trajectory of a scientist who made his most consequential discovery at the age of 57 and received the Nobel Prize at 97.

The lithium-ion battery remains the subject of intense research and development worldwide, with scientists building on the foundations that Goodenough laid to develop next-generation energy storage technologies. The solid-state battery research that Goodenough pursued in his final years at UT Austin is now a major area of investment for automotive and technology companies seeking to improve upon the current generation of lithium-ion cells. In this sense, Goodenough's influence continues to shape the direction of energy technology research long after his death.