100+ – The brain behind Li-ion batteries is over 100 years old!

Not everyone of you would have heard about John Goodenough, though we feel he deserves to be far more familiar than he is.

Goodenough is one of the key scientists credited with the invention and development of the Li-ion battery.

Goodenough received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1943 and his master’s and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago later. He subsequently taught at MIT and Oxford before joining the University of Texas, Austin.

The recipient of a number of prestigious awards, he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2019 for this work on Li-ion batteries.

Goodenough was born in July 1922. That makes him over a 100 years old as of 2023.

Now, there’s something more astonishing. As of 2021 – aged 98 – he was regularly working in his laboratory, hoping to find the next battery breakthrough.

And as of April 2023, the University still lists him in its list of faculty.

Wow!