Nobel laureate who struggled with dyslexia

John B. Goodenough, with his 97 years, is the oldest Nobel laureate ever.

- He has a wonderful personality and a fantastic characteristic laugh, says Kristina Edström, who is the Nobel Committee's expert and professor of chemistry.

- John B. Goodenough is an icon, he is the watch type for a researcher who loves his research, she says.

His upbringing is a story against all odds.

John B. Goodenough was born in 1922 and grew up in rural Connecticut, located on the east coast of the United States. His father was a professor of religion at the nearby Yale prestige university.

Dad made it clear to his son early on that he would never have a future in the academic world.

In many interviews over the years, John B. Goodenough has stated that his family misinterpreted his dyslexia. They thought he had no reading head and was therefore not suitable for study.

- It was hard for me to read and write but I eventually learned myself, says John B. Goodenough in a podcast for Chemical and Engineering News made in September 2019.

He had a driving force and went his own way.

- My father gave me $ 25 and said, "Here you are, now you can go to university," he says.

The annual fee for going on collage at Yale at that time was $ 900. The difference between the future Nobel laureate, among other things, was to provide support education on the weekends to better-informed students.

When he later chose to focus, it was clear that some topics went away because he had dyslexia. Whether history, law or medicine, of which he was interested, would work. But science subjects worked.

And that may be lucky to say in the story's rear-view mirror.