Alan J. Heeger
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| Born | Alan Jay Heeger January 22, 1936 Sioux City, Iowa, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| 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 (2000) Balzan Prize ENI award Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1983) |
| Spouse | Ruth (2 children) |
Alan Jay Heeger (born January 22, 1936) is an American physicist, academic and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry.
Contents
Life and career
Heeger was born in Sioux City, Iowa, to a Jewish family. He grew up in Akron, Iowa, where his father owned a general store. At age nine, following his father's death, the family moved to Sioux City.[1]
Heeger 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[2][3]
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.[4] Heeger is also a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.[5] Heeger has been a judge of the STAGE International Script Competition three times (2006, 2007, 2010).[6]
"Perhaps the greatest pleasure of being a scientist is to have an abstract idea, then to do an experiment (more often a series of experiments is required) that demonstrates the idea was correct; that is, Nature actually behaves as conceived in the mind of the scientist. This process is the essence of creativity in science. I have been fortunate to have experienced this intense pleasure many times in my life." Alan J Heeger, Never Lose Your Nerve! [7]
Publication list
Journal Articles:
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Technical Reports:
- Heeger, A. J. and A. G. MacDiarmid. "Polyacetylene, (CH){sub x}, as an Emerging Material for Solar Cell Applications. Final Technical Report, March 19, 1979 - March 18, 1980," University of Pennsylvania, United States Department of Energy, (June 5, 1980).
- Heeger, A. J., Sinclair, M., et al. "Subgap Absorption in Conjugated Polymers," Sandia National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, (1991).
- Heeger, A. J., Sinclair, M., et al. "Measurements of Photo-induced Changes in Conjugated Polymers," Sandia National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, (1991).
Autobiography
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See also
References
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- ↑ http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/schoolprograms/lunchwithalaureate
- ↑ http://www.usasciencefestival.org/about/advisors
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Never Lose Your Nerve! http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9724
External links
- Curriculum Vitae of Alan J. Heeger, posted at 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, 2005, provided by the Vega Science Trust
- UCSB profile
- Nobel Prize Documentation
- Biography, Photograph and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
- Photos and video from presentation in Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
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2000 Nobel Prize laureates
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| Chemistry |
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| Literature |
Gao Xingjian (China/France)
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| Peace |
Kim Dae-jung (South Korea)
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| Physics |
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| Physiology or Medicine |
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- 1936 births
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Foreign Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- American Jews
- American physicists
- Jewish American scientists
- Jewish physicists
- Living people
- Molecular electronics
- Nobel laureates in Chemistry
- American Nobel laureates
- Organic semiconductors
- Polymer scientists and engineers
- People from Sioux City, Iowa
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
- Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
- Guggenheim Fellows
