John Goodenough: The Tony Stark of True Superheroes

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The last century has seen an unprecedented amount of technological change, prompted by a rush of scientific advancements that have revolutionized every aspect of the human experience. One of the most incredible things is how much of it depended on the work of just one man, John B. Goodenough, the inventor of the lithium-ion battery. John, born in 1922, devoted his life to the pursuit of a better, cleaner, and more energetic world, and his success marks him out as the real life Tony Stark, a True Superhero breathing new life and new possibilities into modern technology.

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The austere beginnings of a True Superhero

John was born in 1922 in Jena, Germany to American parents. At the time, his father was studying for a DPhil in divinity and would soon move his family back to the US as he took up a role as a professor at Yale. While John’s family circumstances were comfortable, he faced great challenges from an early age, growing up as a dyslexic at a time when that condition was poorly understood.

Although he took a great interest in the natural world around him, he struggled at school and has said that this affected him greatly for many years, telling the Nobel Prize committee: “How I struggled to learn to read! I read mechanically without the ability to catch easily the meaning of a paragraph. I never was a good reader, and… I also had a deep sense of insecurity that only lifted slowly as I grew older.” 

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