Cockrell School of Engineering professors John Goodenough and Adam Heller are being honored as The University of Texas at Austin’s Inventors of the Year.
Goodenough is the Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He invented the modern lithium-ion battery, the rechargeable power source that runs music players, laptop computers, electric vehicles and more.
Heller is the Ernest Cockrell Sr. Chair Emeritus in Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He developed a painless way for people with diabetes to painlessly check their blood sugar levels.
In this video, Goodenough and Heller make it plain that, while important, technology is not the only thing that drives them.
It’s the people they work with as researchers and guide as mentors and the people who use the technologies.
It’s not hard to see why these researchers, who’ve made other significant discoveries in their rich careers, are the first to be named as the university’s Inventors of the Year.
The university’s Office of Technology Commercialization organized the award and the ceremony recognizing Goodenough and Heller.
