Alan J. Heeger
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Alan J. Heeger
(born Jan. 22, 1936, Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.) U.S. chemist. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1961. With Alan G. MacDiarmid and Shirakawa Hideki, Heeger determined that certain plastics can be chemically modified to conduct electricity almost as readily as metals. The finding led to the discovery of other conductive polymers and contributed to the emerging field of molecular electronics. Heeger, who taught at several institutions, founded the UNIAX Corp. in 1990. In 2000 he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with MacDiarmid and Shirakawa.
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Heeger, Alan Jay, 1936-, American physicist and chemist, b. Sioux City, Iowa, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1961. Heeger has held faculty positions at the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1962-82) and the Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (1982-). He was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa for their work on electrically conductive polymers. These materials, which have the electrical properties of metals and the manufacturing advantages of polymers, have a variety of applications, including use as antistatic substances for photographic film, shields for computer screens, and "smart" windows to block sunlight.
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Alan J. Heeger
| Alan Jay Heeger | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 22, 1936 Sioux City, Iowa, USA |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Physics, Chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Pennsylvania University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Alma mater | University of Nebraska University of California, Berkeley |
| Doctoral advisor | Alan Portis |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry Balzan Prize ENI award |
Alan Jay Heeger (born January 22, 1936) is an American physicist, academic and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry.
Heeger was born in Sioux City, Iowa to a Jewish family. He earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1957, and a Ph.D in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1961. From 1962 to 1982 he was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1982 he commenced his present appointment as a professor in the Physics Department and the Materials Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research has led to the formation of numerous start-up companies including Uniax, Konarka, and Sirigen, founded in 2003 by Guillermo C. Bazan, Patrick J. Dietzen, Brent S. Gaylord. Alan Heeger was a founder of Uniax, which was acquired by DuPont.
He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000 along with Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa "for their discovery and development of conductive polymers;" They published their results on polyacetylene a conductive polymer in 1977[1][2]
He had won the Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society in 1983 and, in 1995, the Balzan Prize for Science of Non-Biological Materials.
His sons are the neuroscientist David Heeger and the immunologist Peter Heeger.
In October 2010, Heeger participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize-winning Scientist over a brown bag lunch.[3] Heeger is also a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.[4] Heeger has been a judge of the STAGE International Script Competition three times (2006, 2007, 2010).[5]
References
- ^ Shirakawa, Hideki; Louis, Edwin J.; MacDiarmid, Alan G.; Chiang, Chwan K.; Heeger, Alan J. (1977). "Synthesis of electrically conducting organic polymers: Halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH) x". Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications (16): 578. doi:10.1039/C39770000578.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000: Alan Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa". http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2000/.
- ^ http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/schoolprograms/lunchwithalaureate
- ^ http://www.usasciencefestival.org/about/advisors
- ^ "STAGE Judges". http://stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu/competition/judges/. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
External links
- Curriculum Vitae of Alan J. Heeger, webpage posted at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved November 18, 2007.
- Heeger Nobel Prize lecture
- Free to view video interview, Harry Kroto NL talks to Alan Heeger provided by the Vega Science Trust.
- UCSB profile
- Nobel Prize Documentation
- Photos and video from presentation in Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
See also
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Mentioned in
Year 1977
(in Science & Technology)
Chemistry
(American history)
Nobel Prizes
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Prizes and Awards
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