John B. Goodenough

John B. Goodenough
Goodenough in 2019
Born	John Bannister Goodenough (1922-07-25)July 25, 1922 Jena, Thuringia, German Reich
Died	June 25, 2023(2023-06-25) (aged 100) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University (BS) University of Chicago (MS, PhD)
Known for	Li-ion rechargeable battery Li-ion manganese oxide battery Li-ion iron phosphate battery Glass battery Goodenough–Kanamori rules Random-access memory
Spouse	Irene Wiseman ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 2016)​
Parent	Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough (father)
Awards	Japan Prize (2001) Enrico Fermi Award (2009) National Medal of Science (2011) IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies (2012) Charles Stark Draper Prize (2014) Welch Award (2017) Copley Medal (2019) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Oxford University of Texas at Austin
Thesis	A theory of the deviation from close packing in hexagonal metal crystals (1952)
Doctoral advisor	Clarence Zener
Notable students	Bill David (postdoc)[1] Arumugam Manthiram (postdoc)[2]

John Bannister Goodenough (/ˈɡʊdɪnʌf/ GUUD-in-uf;^[3] July 25, 1922 – June 25, 2023) was an American materials scientist, a solid-state physicist, and a Nobel laureate in chemistry. From 1986 he was a professor of Materials Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering,^[4] at the University of Texas at Austin. He is credited with identifying the Goodenough–Kanamori rules of the sign of the magnetic superexchange in materials, with developing materials for computer random-access memory and with inventing cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Goodenough was born in Jena, Germany, to American parents. During and after graduating from Yale University, Goodenough served as a U.S. military meteorologist in World War II. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Chicago, became a researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and later the head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford.

Goodenough was awarded the National Medal of Science, the Copley Medal, the Fermi Award, the Draper Prize, and the Japan Prize. The John B. Goodenough Award in materials science is named for him. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino; at 97 years old, he became the oldest Nobel laureate in history.^[5] From August 27, 2021, until his death, he was the oldest living Nobel Prize laureate.