John B. Goodenough
Christina Bock, president of the Board of The Electrochemical Society (ECS), congratulated John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino who today were jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
“On behalf of the entire ECS community, I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to our esteemed members: John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino on being awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry ‘for the development of Lithium-ion batteries,’” said Bock. “This is fitting recognition for the truly groundbreaking advancements these pioneers have made for our field and for the whole of humanity. Simply put, their research is the enabling science upon which the solutions to the grand challenges facing the planet—renewable energy, clean transportation, communications to name but a few—will be based. We are honored to count their almost 60 years of combined membership among our ranks.”
Akira Yoshino
John B. Goodenough, PhD, the University of Texas at Austin; M. Stanley Whittingham, PhD, Binghamton University; and Akira Yoshino, PhD, Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University, are longtime Society members. Many of their seminal papers in the development of Li-ion batteries were published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES). Goodenough and Whittingham are ECS Fellows.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the three scientists’ seminal contributions in the development of the Lithium-ion battery. This strong, lightweight, and rechargeable battery stores significant energy from solar and wind sources and powers everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Science’s “Scientific Background on the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019” cites three JES articles critical to the development of the Lithium-ion battery:
M. Stanley Whittingham
- “Studies of Lithium Intercalation into Carbons Using Nonaqueous Electrochemical Cells”
- “Phospho-Olivines as Positive-Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries”
- “The Electrochemical Behavior of Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals in Nonaqueous Battery Systems—The Solid Electrolyte Interphase Model”
Whittingham will address the 236th ECS Meeting in Atlanta, GA, USA on “Prelude to a Revolution in Solid State Electrochemistry” on Wednesday, 16 October, 2019. There is still time to register!
