Scientists reflect on their faith (X)

John Bannister Goodenough is an American materials scientist and solid-state physicist. Aged 97, he just became the oldest person to win the Nobel Prize. Together with Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, they were awarded the Nobel Prize 2019 for their development of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The rechargeable, lightweight battery is found in nearly all portable electronics, from power tools and medical devices to smartphones and laptops.

He is a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the University of Texas at Austin. Besides the identification and development of the lithium-ion battery, he is also known for developing the Goodenough–Kanamori rules in determining the sign of the magnetic superexchange in materials, and for seminal developments in computer random access memory.

Goodenough had almost completed his undergraduate degree in mathematics when he was called to active duty in 1943 as an Army meteorologist. In 1944, he was granted a bachelor’s degree.  Shortly after the war he recived a surprise telegram. Federal funds had become available to send a select group of returning Army officers to Chicago to do graduate work in the physical sciences. Unbeknownst to Goodenough, a Yale professor had submitted his name. He wrote his thesis on how and why the structure of hexagonal metal alloys changes with the concentration of the conduction electrons and got a PhD in 1952.

He then worked at MIT Lincoln for more than two decades, investigating magnetism, cooperative orbital ordering, and d-electron behavior. In 1976, he was invited to head the inorganic chemistry laboratory at Oxford University. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Goodenough developed rechargeable batteries with cathodes made from layered oxides capable of storing lithium ions. This greatly improved the energy density, and lithium cobalt oxide remains the cathode material of choice for lithium-ion batteries.

John B Goodenough is a committed Evangelical Christian since his College years. The seed of faith seemingly lay dormant during Goodenough’s time at Yale and service in World War II, but after obtaining his PhD in physics at Chicago, he decided to seriously consider Christianity.

“It had haunted me from time to time since it first spoke to me in the Groton School chapel. I finally made my public declaration of faith and committed myself to Christian witness. This commitment meant I would put my trust in the Holy Spirit to make acceptable my service to the Life Everlasting, which alone endures in this world of change. The resurrection of Jesus, which transformed completely the thought and the lives of those who witnessed it, testified for me that the Holy Spirit that searches an open heart has the power and the love to free us from conformity and transform us by the renewing of our mind.”

Goodenough later married Irene Wiseman, the woman who had led him to Christ. In 2008, he wrote his autobiography “Witness to Grace”, unfortunately out of print. Here is the cover text:

“A personal story of awakening to the beauty of holiness, the art of metaphor, the sacredness of dialogue, meaning in service to that which is eternal, and the reality of Evil, this book also chronicles a struggle to find a calling to a career in the science of the solid state, a career that brought together physics, chemistry and engineering. The author leaves to the reader the decision as to what was the result of chance and what was the leading of the Spirit of Love.”

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His current quest, Magazine of the University of Chicago, Summer 2016

Winners of this year’s Nobel prizes follow Jesus, Eternity News, 14 Oct 2019