You may not know much about Dr. John B. Goodenough, but you know about his body of work — in fact, you’re almost certainly holding it right now.
The Nobel Prize-winning scientist, whose breakthrough work on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries powers many of our devices, passed away Sunday at 100, per The New York Times.
In 1980, Goodenough was researching battery designs at the University of Oxford. Four years of work resulted in improved batteries similar to the high-voltage, low-volatility ones in use today.
It wasn’t initially a hit — Oxford passed on the patent and Goodenough relinquished the rights to his discovery. In 1991, everything changed when Japanese scientists building upon his work produced a safe, commercialized lithium-ion battery.
Judging by the nest of charging cords in view while writing this, applications for those rechargeable batteries went wild: smartphones, laptops, and tablets, for starters.
His story is incredible — from growing up dyslexic to publishing eight books and 800+ scientific journal articles — but until the 2019 Nobel honor, Goodenough was “relatively unknown beyond scientific and academic circles and the commercial titans who exploited his work,” per NYT.
His last decades as a University of Texas professor suggest missing out on the financial spoils didn’t phase him — Goodenough shared patents and donated award stipends to research.
His story isn’t over just yet: Goodenough stayed active into his late 90s developing a new superbattery he hoped could store and transport wind, solar, and nuclear energy.