John B Goodenough - our obituary

The RSC's Materials Chemistry Community are saddened to learn of the passing of Professor John B. Goodenough.

John Goodenough (25 July 1922 – 25 June 2023) was born in Jenna, Germany to American parents. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in mathematics (1943) at Yale University, and a stint in the US Army during the Second World War, he received his master's degree (1951) and doctorate (1952) in physics from the University of Chicago.

Amongst his many scientific achievements, Professor Goodenough played a significant role in the development of Random Access Memory (RAM) for computers, but he is probably best known for his work on lithium-ion batteries, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019. Some of his other prizes include the US National Medal of Science, the Copley Medal, the Fermi Award, the Draper Prize and the Japan Prize.

The Materials Chemistry Community has a Prize named after him. Named initially the Materials Chemistry Forum Lifetime Award, the Materials Chemistry Open Prize: John B Goodenough Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in any area of materials chemistry.