Augustine Pamplany CST
John B. Goodenough (1922-) is an American Physicist who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2019. He was the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize. American Scientist M. Stanley Whittingham and Japanese Chemist Yoshino Akira were co-recipients of the 2019 Nobel Prize for developing lithium-ion batteries.
Goodenough had his bachelor’s in mathematics from Yale University in 1943, and Masters (1951) and doctorate (1952) from University of Chicago. Since 1952, Goodenough was a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became a professor at the University of Oxford in 1976 and his researches there helped him develop the lithium-ion battery with higher volts than the type developed by Stanley Whittingham. Lithium-ion battery is the secret of power in mobiles and laptops.
The University of Chicago Magazine reported about his faith this way: “A large tapestry of the Last Supper hangs in Goodenough’s lab, and religious artefacts share space in his office…” In his book Witness To Grace, Goodenough recollects the boyhood dream fashioned after the model of God in Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. His father who was a teacher of religion used to give him answers on God using ancient images of God. His father had also convinced him that humans have a psychological need for religious experience: “That night I had a dream. In the dream, the ancient images appeared one by one. As each appeared, I cried out ‘That’s not God!’ Then the hound smiled; behind the smile was a warm light, and I cried out, ‘God is love!’ The excitement of this moment awoke me from my sleep, I jumped out of bed for joy wanting to share my discovery.” It was a deeply moving sensation that he cherished for long.
Based on his own life he said: “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide. Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside…. 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.”
Of scientists he commented: “They want to understand nature so they can serve it. And they want to understand nature so they can, in conformity with nature, do something for their fellow man.’”
