The John B Goodenough Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in any area of materials chemistry.
- Run biennially (even years)
- The winner receives £3000, a medal and a certificate
- The winner will complete a UK lecture tour
- The winner will be chosen by the Materials Chemistry Prize Committee
2022 Winner
2022 John B Goodenough Award Winner
Professor J. Paul Attfield, The University of Edinburgh
For transformative discoveries of new materials from high pressure synthesis and of novel electronic phenomena in solids.
Guidelines for nominators
- Nominations open 18 October.
- Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT.
- Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
- Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
- We will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.
- Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, RSC staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
- Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate or be nominated:
- Materials Chemistry Prize Committee members
- RSC Subject Community Presidents
- RSC Prize Committee members
- Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry
- Royal Society of Chemistry staff
- This prize is open to nominees working in the UK or Ireland only.
- There are no career stage restrictions associated with this prize.
- When nominating previous RSC prize winners, please remember that a person cannot be awarded twice for substantially the same body of work.
- Nominees should only be nominated once for this prize in any given prize cycle. In cases where we receive more than one nomination for the same nominee, only one nomination will go forward to judging.
- Unsuccessful nominations for this prize will automatically rollover to the next prize cycle, unless the nominee’s circumstances have changed so as to make them ineligible, in relation to the eligibility criteria for the prize as outlined above. We encourage nominators to update their nomination between cycles when the nomination window is open. Nominations will be considered for two consecutive prize cycles.
To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:
- Your name, contact details, and membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details). Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination – it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels. The RSC reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
- Your nominee's name and contact details.
- An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents.
- A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence.
- A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria. Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing this supporting statement.
- A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the ‘selection criteria’ tab.
- References are not required for this award and will not be accepted.
The RSC reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving this prize. All prize winners will be asked to sign the RSC’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition.
Make a nominationSelection Criteria and Judging Panel
Our selection committees base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.
The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.
The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:
- Originality of research
- Impact of research
- Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
- Innovation
- Professional standing
- Collaborations and teamwork
- Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator
In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.
Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:
- Involvement with Royal Society of Chemistry member groups/networks
- Teaching/demonstrating
- Effective mentorship
- Service on boards, committees or panels
- Leadership in the scientific community
- Peer-reviewer
- Promotion of diversity and inclusion
- Advocacy for chemistry
- Public engagement and outreach
Materials Chemistry Prize Committee
- Magda Titirici, Imperial College London (Chair)
- Rachel Evans, University of Cambridge
- Marina Freitag, Newcastle University
- Andrew Goodwin, University of Oxford
- Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez, University of Glasgow
- David Scanlon, University College London
History of the prize
Established in 2008, the John B Goodenough Prize recognises the work of John Bannister Goodenough.
Goodenough received a degree in Mathematics at Yale whilst serving in the U.S. army air force. He went on to become a research scientist and group leader at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for 24 years. During this time Goodenough made significant contributions to the development of the first RAM. He formulated the concept of cooperative orbital ordering to remove d-orbital degeneracy; the resulting crystallographic distortions are Jahn-Teller distortions.
Goodenough also recognized that short-range orbital ordering built in chemical inhomogeneities that enabled control of the magnetic B-H loop for ferrospinel memory cores. He applied the concept of cooperative orbital order to account for the anisotropic magnetic order in the system La1-xCaxMnO3, and formulated the rules for the sign of the spin-spin interactions - the Goodenough-Kanamori rules. In the 1960s, his exploration of the transition from localized to itinerant d-electron behaviour not only resolved the origin of the metallic conductivity found in some perovskites, but also led to his recognition that this transition is first-order and is evident in charge-density waves.
Termination by Congress of such fundamental studies at Lincoln Laboratory led Goodenough to explore energy materials as Professor and Head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, where he developed layered and spinel oxides as cathodes for the Li rechargeable battery. SONY, of Japan, adopted his layered Li1-xCoO2 cathode to launch the cell telephone and laptop computer, initiating the "wireless revolution". In 2019, along with Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, Goodenough received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
In 2020, as part of a series of changes resulting from an independent review of the Royal Society of Chemistry's recognition programmes, this prize changed to run in even years, alternating with the De Gennes Prize (odd years).
Re-thinking recognition: Science prizes for the modern world
This report is the result of an independent review of our recognition programmes. Our aim in commissioning this review was to ensure that our recognition portfolio continues to deliver the maximum impact for chemical scientists, chemistry and society.
Prizes
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