Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are no doubt a primary power source for numerous applications around us. Therefore, it is intrinsic to be long lasting and safe during operation-two issues that are tackled by thermal management. The purpose of this article is to enable the reader to get an informative overview about thermal management and safety of LIB in a quick but efficient manner. In this regard, the article reviews the modeling efforts conducted in four key areas of the topics, namely, (1) electrochemical models, (2) electrochemical-thermal coupled models, (3) cooling of LIB, and (4) LIB abuse and thermal runaway.