Alan Jay Heeger (born January 22, 1936) is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

and

Nobel Prize laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

in chemistry. Heegar was elected as a member into the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

in 2002 for co-founding the field of conducting polymers and for pioneering work in making these novel materials available for technological applications.

Life and career

Heeger was born in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County ...

, to a Jewish family. He grew up in

Akron, Iowa Akron is a city in Plymouth County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,558 at the 2020 census. History Akron was incorporated September 7, 1882. The town's name is a transfer from Akron, Ohio. Geography According to the United States ...

, where his father owned a general store. At age nine, following his father's death, the family moved to Sioux City. Heeger earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1957, and a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in physics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1961. From 1962 to 1982 he was on the faculty of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. 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 The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. His research has led to the formation of numerous start-up companies including Uniax,

Konarka Konarka Technologies, Inc. was a solar energy company based in Lowell, Massachusetts, founded in 2001 as a spin-off from University of Massachusetts Lowell. In late May 2012, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and laid off it ...

, 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 ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

in 2000 along with Alan G. MacDiarmid and

Hideki Shirakawa is a Japanese chemist, engineer, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba and Zhejiang University. He is best known for his discovery of conductive polymers. He was co-recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Alan Ma ...

"for their discovery and development of

conductive polymers Conductive polymers or, more precisely, intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) are organic polymers that conduct electricity. Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors. The biggest advantage of conductive polymers ...

; "They published their results on

polyacetylene Polyacetylene (IUPAC name: polyethyne) usually refers to an organic polymer with the repeating unit . The name refers to its conceptual construction from polymerization of acetylene to give a chain with repeating olefin groups. This compound ...

conductive polymer Conductive polymers or, more precisely, intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) are organic polymers that conduct electricity. Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors. The biggest advantage of conductive polymers ...

in 1977. This led to the construction of the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model, a simple model for

topological insulator A topological insulator is a material whose interior behaves as an electrical insulator while its surface behaves as an electrical conductor, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material. A topological insulator is an ...

s. 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 A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

David Heeger and the immunologist Peter Heeger. In October 2010, Heeger participated in the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...

'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. Heeger is also a member of the

's Advisory Board. Heeger has been a judge of the ''STAGE'' International Script Competition three times (2006, 2007, 2010). "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!Never Lose Your Nerve! http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9724

Publication list

Journal Articles: * * Technical Reports: *Heeger, A. J. and A. G. MacDiarmid.
Polyacetylene, (CH)_x, as an Emerging Material for Solar Cell Applications. Final Technical Report, March 19, 1979 - March 18, 1980
"

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

, (June 5, 1980). *Heeger, A. J., Sinclair, M., et al.
Subgap Absorption in Conjugated Polymers
"

Sandia National Laboratory Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...

, (1991). *Heeger, A. J., Sinclair, M., et al.
Measurements of Photo-induced Changes in Conjugated Polymers
"

, (1991).

Autobiography

, World Scientific Publishing,

References

External links

''Curriculum Vitae of Alan J. Heeger''
posted at University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved November 18, 2007 * including the Nobel lecture December 8, 2000 ''Semiconducting and Metallic Polymers: The Fourth Generation of Polymeric Materials''
Free to view video interview

Harry Kroto Sir Harold Walter Kroto (born Harold Walter Krotoschiner; 7 October 1939 – 30 April 2016), known as Harry Kroto, was an English chemist. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for their discovery ...

NL talks to Alan Heeger, 2005, provided by the

Vega Science Trust The Vega Science Trust was a not-for-profit organisation which provided a platform from which scientists can communicate directly with the public on science by using moving image, sound and other related means. The Trust closed in 2012 but the we ...

UCSB profilePhotos and video from presentation
in Brno University of Technology,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heeger, Alan Jay 1936 births Living people Nobel laureates in Chemistry American Nobel laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 21st-century American physicists Jewish American scientists Jewish physicists Molecular electronics Organic semiconductors Polymer scientists and engineers People from Sioux City, Iowa University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellows of the American Physical Society Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners People from Akron, Iowa

Life and career

Publication list

Autobiography

See also

References

External links