After winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry last week, John Goodenough came back to Austin on Monday morning and got another little gift.
At a news conference, University of Texas President Greg Fenves noted that the lithium ion battery technology Goodenough helped invent is being used by every student on campus since they're all carrying smartphones.
Fenves pulled a Longhorns smartphone case out of his suit pocket and passed it over to Goodenough.
Goodenough, who is now 97 years old, let out a hearty laugh, as did a few others in the room.
To be fair, almost any gift would seem small in the context of his lifetime of work on developing better batteries that have changed the way the world works.
"don't be afraid to expose your ignorance, and be sure to enter into dialogue"
But Goodenough is quick to direct a lot of the honor and attention to those who took the scientific foundation he built and commercialized it across countless products.
"I was very fortunate that the people in Japan at Sony Corporation did the technical development of the lithium ion battery," he said. "So my hats off to the Japanese people."
He also credited electrical engineers for finding new ways to use the batteries.
"I was totally unable to anticipate what it would lead to," he said. "The electrical engineers are pretty clever... they can do all kinds of things that you'd never even dreamed of doing."
Goodenough also thanked everyone at the university, in Austin and even the good weather.
“It’s interesting," he said. "You work with nice people and they do all the hard work and you sit back and try to take as much credit as you can."
Goodenough laughed heartily.
But there seems to be a lot of truth mixed with the humor. It's as if he's reminding us that despite notoriety for the invention and the scientific prizes along the way, innovating often happens well outside of the spotlight and the financial fruits of a pivotal invention can fall far from the tree.
Goodenough was asked whether he foresaw how the lithium ion battery would go on to power smartphones and electric vehicles.
"Oh, you just do one step at a time," he said. "And, no, I didn't anticipate a lot of things. And that's why the lawyers have taken all the money."
He laughed heartily again.
"We've had the joy of inventing things, and the lawyers have had the joy of taking the money," he said, still laughing.
But perhaps the most instructive words from the Nobel Prize winner were about how to stay inspired.
"It's very nice to work in a community where people are doing interesting things," he said. "So you stay inspired because you have colleagues that are interesting. And they have ideas and you bounce them off each other. Remember, dialogue is sacred. It's sacred for reconciliation. And it's also sacred for learning. So don't be afraid to expose your ignorance, and be sure to enter into dialogue."
These days, he said he enjoys the little things. His wife died years ago, and he now has a young woman who comes by his home to chat, make meals and play the piano.
"It's nice just to have good companionship at dinner," he said.
And, for the record, Goodenough is working every day (though he says it's more akin to conducting an orchestra with his talented colleagues), and he has said he has no plans to retire.
“I’m thankful for each new day," he said. "When you get to 97, you’re fortunate to have lived that long. My friends tell me I have to live to 105. Well, I’ll try. But it’s not up to me.”
Here's a separate video interview from a few days ago that was conducted by the Royal Society Of Chemistry:
