This morning, the Nobel committee announced a professor at the University of Texas at Austin was one of three professors to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
The 2019 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino “for the development of lithium-ion batteries.” pic.twitter.com/LUKTeFhUbg
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2019
John Goodenough is 97 years old. In an #adorbs interview with the Nobel folks, he was asked how it feels to be the oldest person ever to win the Nobel Prize.
“I’m very happy to have been able to live this long,” he explained.
Goodenough had actually retired in 1986. Retired from Oxford! Then, like many of us, he decided to up and move to Texas and get a job at UT-Austin.
He was in his 60s when he wrapped up at Oxford.
This led to a discussion with a co-worker about when we plan to retire.
“Would you start a new job and stay 30 years if you were already 64?” she asked.
“I’m trying to retire before I turn 40,” I replied.
“Don’t retire!” Goodenough yelled, storming into the newsroom in the form of that YouTube link above. “If you live long enough, you never know how it’s going to come out.”
In fact, UT-Austin reports Goodenough is already working on another project. A sodium-ion battery. He’s working his way down the alkali metals, kids. If you want to win a Nobel, get crackin’ on the potassium-ion battery [Update: Those apparently already exist, too. Looks like they’re still trying to crack this rubidium situation, though].
Loyal Scaiaholics know I’ve had approximately 87 mid-life crises in blog form. It was nice to hear him preach stick-to-itiveness. Maybe we don’t know what the future holds, but Tom Hanks and Nobel Winner John Goodenough wouldn’t steer us askew.
My generation can steer itself askew on its own, thank you very much. So much so, flight attendants have told us to quit vaping on airplanes because that’s what we’re doing with lithium-ion batteries.
Goodenough is a Nobel winning World War II vet. And the greatest generation rolls its eyes at us again.
