John Googin earned the PhD in physical chemistry from UT in 1953. (His undergraduate degree was from Bates College in 1944.) He served as junior chemist on the Manhattan Project’s Eastman Kodak Company team from 1943 to 1947. He then served at Oak Ridge with Union Carbide as senior scientist in the Development Division, Y-12 Plant (1953–68), and senior staff consultant of the Development Division. In 1987 he became senior corporate fellow with Martin-Marietta.
In 1967 he was awarded the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for recent meritorious contributions in the field of atomic energy by the Atomic Energy Commission. At that time the president of Union Carbide’s Nuclear Division stated that Googin had contributed so many various ideas and techniques in his work at Y-12 that it was estimated he had saved Union Carbide in excess of $100 million. Googin’s abilities were described as “scientific trouble shooting.”
He received the William J. Kroll Zirconium Medal in 1987 and the Gold Medal Award from the American Society of Metals in 1989. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988.
Bates College awarded him an honorary doctor of science in 1968.