At Last, A Nobel – At Age 97!

By Shlomo Maital

John Goodenough

This year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists: John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino share the prize.

Goodenough is American, Whittingham is British and Yoshino is Japanese.

The three won the prize for their work in developing lithium-ion batteries, which are ubiquitous in our lives, including in all our cell phones.

Goodenough has the best story. According to the Wall Street Journal,

“At age 97, Dr. Goodenough of the University of Texas in Austin, who was born in Germany of American parents, is the oldest person ever to receive a Nobel Prize.

   “I’m extremely happy that the lithium-ion battery has been able to help communications through the world,” Dr. Goodenough said during a call with reporters from London, where he is receiving the 2019 Copley Medal for his contribution to materials technology. While there, he learned he had also won this year’s chemistry Nobel.

“It’s been a very eventful day,” he added .”

   The three have been touted for a Nobel for over a decade. Thank goodness, Goodenough lived long enough to win it (Nobel’s are never awarded posthumously).

       Don’t you love his wonderful understatement, about an “eventful day”?

   A member of the Nobel Chemistry committee noted: “Lithium-ion batteries can be combined with energy sources that fluctuate over time, such as solar power, to provide a seamless power supply. The batteries have also enabled a switch from fossil-fuel transportation to electric transportation.”

      p.s.  Some weeks ago, I wrote a magazine column about “Snow-Capped Idea Volcanoes” — senior citizens who have creative ideas and implement them.  In it I mentioned Goodenough: “John Goodenough and his team at University of Texas (Austin) “has just set the tech industry abuzz with his blazing creativity”, wrote Pagan Kennedy, in the New York Times, in April 2017.   “He and his team filed a patent application on a new kind of battery that, if it works, as promised, would be so cheap, lightweight and safe that it would revolutionize electric cars and kill off petroleum-fueled vehicles.”