Nobel Prize Winner and Co-Creator of the Lithium Battery Dies at 100

American scientist John Bannister Goodenough, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry 2019, poses signing a chair at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 6, 2019. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

John B. Goodenough, whose contributions led to the development of lithium-ion batteries which made many of today’s portable electronic devices possible, has died.

Goodenough died on Sunday at the age of 100, according to a June 26 press release from the University of Texas at Austin where he served as a faculty member for 37 years. His cause of death was not mentioned. “John’s legacy as a brilliant scientist is immeasurable—his discoveries improved the lives of billions of people around the world,” said UT Austin president Jay Hartzell. “He was a leader at the cutting edge of scientific research throughout the many decades of his career, and he never ceased searching for innovative energy-storage solutions.”

In 2019, Goodenough won the Nobel Prize in chemistry at the age of 97 for the development of lithium-ion batteries. This made Goodenough the oldest person to win the prestigious award. He shared the honors with Stanley Whittingham of the State University of New York at Binghamton and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University.

Breakthroughs from the three individuals allowed for the creation of a “rechargeable world,” the Nobel committee said in an October 2019 press release. Their contributions enabled the development of portable electronics like laptops and smartphones while also laying down the groundwork for the development of renewable energy storage and long-range electric vehicles.

Born in 1922 in Germany to American parents, Goodenough completed his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.

Even while he was in his nineties, Goodenough was still coming to work at UT Austin. In recent years, he and his university team were exploring new possibilities for energy storage, including a battery having solid-state electrolyte and sodium metal electrodes.

Goodenough’s wife Irene, to whom he was married for more than seven decades, died in 2016. His brother, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, died earlier in 2013. Goodenough does not have any children.

Battery Development

The beginning of lithium-ion batteries started in the 1970s during the oil crisis when Whittingham worked on technologies related to fossil-fuel free energy. He ended up creating a battery with an anode that was made partially from metallic lithium. But since metallic lithium is reactive, the battery turned out to be highly explosive, making it unviable.

Later, Goodenough identified and developed critical cathode materials that became crucial for providing the high-energy density required to power devices like mobile phones and laptops. Using Goodenough’s research as a basis, Yoshino created the world’s first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985. Six years later, lithium-ion batteries entered the market.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Goodenough also has been the recipient of other awards, including the Copley Medal, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper Prize, and the Enrico Fermi Award.

He also authored multiple books, including “Witness to Grace,” an autobiography that was published in 2008.

“The world has lost an incredible mind and generous spirit. He will be truly missed among the scientific and engineering community, but he leaves a lasting legacy that will inspire generations of future innovators and researchers. I am honored to have known and worked with John,” said UT Austin executive vice president and provost Sharon Wood, according to the university’s press release.

Several people also paid tribute to Goodenough online. “Today we honor the legacy and mourn the loss of John Goodenough, a giant among giants in the world of energy,” Jennifer Granholm, the sixteenth secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, stated in a tweet on June 27.

“When you check your cell phone today, if it is working, spare a second to remember John Goodenough. He co-invented the lithium-ion battery, which keeps your phone working,” Russell Gold, a journalist at the Texas Monthly media company, said in a June 26 tweet.