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Nobel Jews
Portrait of Alan Heeger
Photo: Vogler · CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Chemistry · 2000

Alan Heeger

The son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, he helped show that plastic can carry electricity, opening the way to flexible electronics.

The Nobel citation: “for the discovery and development of conductive polymers”
Born
January 22, 1936, Sioux City, IA, USA
Shared with
Alan MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa
Affiliation at the time
University of California, USA

Chemistry prize

2000

Shared with 2 other laureates.

Age that year

64years

Born in 1936.

Sources cited

23

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • On the bitter cold morning he was born, his father's car would not start. He walked to the hospital to see his wife and new son and got frostbitten ears.
  • His first meeting with chemist Alan MacDiarmid went nowhere at first: Heeger kept saying (SN)x, sulfur nitride, while MacDiarmid heard (Sn)x, which is tin.
  • No one in his family had studied past high school before him. He and his younger brother both went on to earn PhDs.
  • Exposing a thin film of the plastic polyacetylene to iodine or bromine vapor made it conduct electricity about ten million times better.
  • His 1995 paper on plastic solar cells has been cited more than 9,700 times, according to the Crossref citation database.

The breakthrough

Plastic that conducts electricity (1976-1977)

Plastics are polymers: very long molecules made of the same small unit repeated over and over, like pearls on a necklace. Everyone knew plastics were insulators; that is why they wrap the copper in electric cables. In 1976 Heeger, a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, teamed up with chemist Alan MacDiarmid and visiting Japanese chemist Hideki Shirakawa. Shirakawa had learned to make shiny, silvery films of a polymer called polyacetylene. Its carbon atoms are joined by alternating single and double bonds, which leaves some electrons loosely held. The team exposed the films to iodine or bromine vapor. This 'doping' pulls electrons out of the chains, leaving gaps. Picture a sliding-tile puzzle: no tile can move until there is an empty space, but once there is one, tiles can shuffle along. In the doped plastic, electrons hop into the gaps one after another, and that moving charge is an electric current. One of Heeger's students measured the doped film and found it conducted about ten million times better than before. At high doping it behaved like a metal. The results appeared in 1977. Heeger then led much of the physics that explained it. With Robert Schrieffer and Wu-Pei Su he showed that charges in polyacetylene can travel as 'solitons', kinks in the pattern of bonds that move along the chain as a unit.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[11],[12],[13]

“They offer a unique combination of properties not available from any other known materials.”
Alan Heeger, Explaining why conducting polymers matter, in his Nobel Lecture, Stockholm, 8 December 2000.[4]

What it meant for humanity

The discovery created a new class of materials: plastics that behave like metals or semiconductors but can be made from solutions, coated on large areas and bent. The Nobel committee called it a research field of great importance for both chemists and physicists. Some of the first uses were quiet ones. Conducting polymers go into antistatic coatings for photographic film and floor coverings, shields against electromagnetic interference, and corrosion protection. Thin, nearly clear films of conducting polymers such as PEDOT can serve as electrodes in light-emitting devices and liquid-crystal displays. Conducting polymers also replaced older materials inside capacitors, small electronic components that store charge. Panasonic sold polymer capacitors from 1991, and the US maker Kemet presented a PEDOT version in 1999. Heeger kept pushing the field toward devices. In 1991 his group, with Yong Cao and Paul Smith, found a way to dissolve conducting polyaniline so it could be processed like ordinary plastic. His laboratory showed in 1992 that light falling on a semiconducting polymer mixed with carbon-60 molecules separates charge in less than a trillionth of a second. In 1995 it reported the 'bulk heterojunction', a blend of two materials that meet everywhere inside the film; a Cambridge group reported a similar blend the same year. That design became central to research on plastic solar cells and light detectors. His company UNIAX, founded in 1990, developed early polymer light-emitting displays and was bought by DuPont in 2000. Plastic electronics has not yet delivered everything its pioneers hoped for. Still, it has given engineers a new set of materials that are light, flexible and cheap to process.

  • Conducting polymers are used in antistatic coatings for photographic film, antistatic floor coverings for offices and operating theatres, shielding against electromagnetic radiation and corrosion protection.[2],[3]
  • Capacitors using conducting polymers have been sold since 1988, when Nitsuko launched one based on polypyrrole. Panasonic launched a line in 1991, and Kemet presented a PEDOT version in 1999.[19]
  • His 1995 'bulk heterojunction', two materials blended so they meet throughout the film, became a core design for plastic solar cells. Crossref counts over 9,700 citations.[4],[15],[22],[23]
  • In 1992 his group showed that light striking a semiconducting polymer blended with carbon-60 separates charge in under a trillionth of a second, the first step in turning light into electricity.[4],[14]
  • His company UNIAX, founded in 1990, developed early polymer light-emitting displays. DuPont bought it in March 2000, and its Goleta site ran as DuPont Displays until 2016.[1],[16],[17]

Impact in numbers

Heeger's deepest impact is a change in what materials can do. Before 1977, plastics were insulators by definition. After the discovery he shared, chemists and physicists had a family of plastics that act as metals or semiconductors, and a new research field between chemistry and physics. His own laboratory supplied much of the physics, including soliton theory, and several device firsts: processible polyaniline, ultrafast charge transfer to carbon-60 and the bulk-heterojunction solar cell, which became a core design for organic photovoltaics. Commercial use is real but mostly behind the scenes, in antistatic coatings, capacitors, display electrodes and sensors. Hopes for cheap plastic solar power and all-plastic displays have been slower to pay off. We give no number. Published market figures for 'conductive polymers' also count filled and heat-conducting plastics that owe nothing to this discovery, so any total would be unreliable, and we do not try to count lives or jobs.

TechnologyEnergyEconomyFundamental science

No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.

The double edge

No direct harm has been traced to Heeger's work. The honest caveats are about promises that outran results. In 2000 the Nobel announcement linked the field to molecular electronics, which it said might one day fit a laptop's computing into a watch. The committee's popular summary predicted flat polymer TV screens within a few years and imagined light-emitting wallpaper. Conducting polymers have instead found most of their uses in supporting roles such as coatings, electrodes and capacitor parts. Two companies tied to Heeger show the business risk. Konarka, a plastic solar cell maker he co-founded in 2001, raised more than $170 million from private investors and about $20 million in government grants. It filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in 2012, and about 80 people lost their jobs. DuPont Displays, which grew out of his polymer display company UNIAX, closed in 2016 and laid off 41 employees. His early career also had defense ties, as much US physics did then. As a graduate student he worked part time for Lockheed's Space and Missile Division, and a small add-on to an Office of Naval Research grant helped bring Shirakawa to Pennsylvania.

  • Minor

    Promises that outran results

    The 2000 Nobel materials predicted flat polymer TV screens within a few years and linked the field to molecular computers small enough to fit in a watch. Conducting polymers have mostly found work as supporting materials such as electrodes, coatings and capacitor parts, and DuPont's polymer display unit, built on Heeger's company UNIAX, closed in 2016.[2],[3],[17]

  • Minor

    Konarka's collapse

    Konarka, a plastic solar cell company Heeger co-founded in 2001, raised more than $170 million in private capital plus about $20 million in government grants. It filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in 2012, and about 80 employees lost their jobs.[18]

  • Minor

    Defense-linked funding and work

    As a graduate student Heeger worked part time for Lockheed's Space and Missile Division. A small add-on to an Office of Naval Research grant helped bring Shirakawa to Pennsylvania, where the discovery was made. We found no evidence of military use of the discovery itself.[1]

Against the odds

Heeger's story is mostly about the generation before him. His father came to Sioux City, Iowa, from the Russian Empire in 1904 at the age of four, and his mother was the daughter of Jewish immigrants. Both families left Russia to escape the oppression and poverty that many Russian Jews faced. In the decades before, waves of anti-Jewish mob violence, called pogroms, had hit towns across the empire, and Jews there lived under laws limiting where they could live, what they could own and which jobs they could hold. Many families fled to America, and by World War I Sioux City had an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Jewish residents. In America the family was safe but not rich. Heeger's father ran a general store in Akron, Iowa, a farm town of about 1,000 people. He had a weak heart and died when Alan was nine. His mother then raised two boys alone in Omaha, in a house shared with her sister's family. She had won a university scholarship but went to work instead to support her parents, and she made sure her sons saw university as their duty. No one in the family had studied past high school, and both boys went on to earn PhDs. Heeger grew up in years when antisemitism in the United States ran high, and elite colleges had long used quotas to hold down Jewish enrollment. That quota system ended in the 1940s, and the sources we found describe no discrimination against Heeger himself.

  • 1904

    Persecution

    His father's family left the Russian Empire for Sioux City in 1904. The Science History Institute says both his parents' families left Russia to escape the oppression and poverty many Russian Jews faced. From 1881 on, waves of anti-Jewish riots called pogroms struck the empire, and Jews there lived under laws that limited where they could live and work.[1],[5],[10],[21]

  • 1945

    Other

    His father, who had a weak heart, died on his 45th birthday, when Alan was nine. His mother raised him and his brother as a single parent, sharing a house with her sister's family in Omaha.[1]

  • —

    Poverty

    His mother won a university scholarship but went to work instead to help support her immigrant parents. Before Alan's generation, no one on either side of his family had studied beyond high school.[1]

  • —

    Discrimination

    Wider context: antisemitism in the United States ran high in the 1930s and 1940s, and elite colleges had long used quotas to limit Jewish students. The quota system ended in the 1940s. We found no record that Heeger was personally affected.[20]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishRelationship to Jewish identity not documented

Heeger was born into a Jewish family. His father's family came to Sioux City, Iowa, from Russia as Jewish immigrants in 1904, when his father was four years old. His mother was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. The Science History Institute writes that both families left Russia to escape the oppression and poverty that many Russian Jews faced. Sioux City then had one of the larger Jewish communities of the upper Midwest, made up largely of families who had fled persecution in the Russian Empire. Heeger is included in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. The sources we found say little about his personal religious practice.[1],[5],[8],[9],[10]

Key dates

  1. 1904

    His father's family emigrates from Russia to Sioux City, Iowa, as Jewish immigrants; his father is four years old.[1]

  2. January 22, 1936

    Born in Sioux City, Iowa; grows up in Akron, Iowa, where his father runs a general store.[1],[2]

  3. 1945

    His father dies; his mother moves the family to Omaha, Nebraska, to be near her relatives.[1]

  4. 1957

    Graduates from the University of Nebraska with a double major in physics and mathematics.[1],[7]

  5. 1961

    Earns his PhD in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, in the group of Alan Portis.[1],[3]

  6. 1962

    Joins the physics faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he stays for twenty years.[3],[5]

  7. 1976

    With Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, discovers that doped polyacetylene conducts electricity like a metal.[4],[5],[6]

  8. 1977

    The team publishes the discovery in the Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, and in Physical Review Letters.[11],[12]

  9. June 18, 1979

    With Wu-Pei Su and Robert Schrieffer, publishes the theory of solitons in polyacetylene.[1],[13]

  10. 1982

    Moves to the University of California, Santa Barbara, as professor of physics.[3],[7]

  11. 1990

    Founds UNIAX Corporation with Paul Smith to develop products from conducting polymers.[1],[3]

  12. December 15, 1995

    His group reports the 'bulk heterojunction' design for plastic solar cells in the journal Science.[15]

  13. October 10, 2000

    Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with MacDiarmid and Shirakawa for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.[2]

  14. 2001

    Co-founds Konarka Technologies to make flexible plastic solar cells; the company is liquidated in 2012.[18]

Sources

  1. 1.Alan Heeger – Biographical · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach), 2000
  2. 2.Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000 · The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences / NobelPrize.org, 2000
  3. 3.The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000: Popular information · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach), 2000
  4. 4.Semiconducting and Metallic Polymers: The Fourth Generation of Polymeric Materials (Nobel Lecture, 8 December 2000) · The Nobel Foundation, 2000
  5. 5.Alan G. MacDiarmid, Alan J. Heeger, and Hideki Shirakawa · Science History Institute
  6. 6.Oral history interview with Alan J. Heeger (interviewed by Cyrus C. M. Mody, 13-16 March 2006) · Science History Institute Digital Collections, 2006
  7. 7.Alan J. Heeger · Wikipedia
  8. 8.Heeger, Alan J. (Encyclopaedia Judaica) · Encyclopedia.com
  9. 9.Alan Heeger · Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise)
  10. 10.The rise and fall of a major Jewish community in the Midwest -- and how that community changed the world · Arnold Garson (Substack), 2025
  11. 11.Synthesis of electrically conducting organic polymers: halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH)x (Shirakawa, Louis, MacDiarmid, Chiang, Heeger) · Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 1977
  12. 12.Electrical Conductivity in Doped Polyacetylene (Chiang, Fincher, Park, Heeger, Shirakawa, Louis, Gau, MacDiarmid) · Physical Review Letters, 1977
  13. 13.Solitons in Polyacetylene (Su, Schrieffer, Heeger) · Physical Review Letters, 1979
  14. 14.Photoinduced Electron Transfer from a Conducting Polymer to Buckminsterfullerene (Sariciftci, Smilowitz, Heeger, Wudl) · Science, 1992
  15. 15.Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions (Yu, Gao, Hummelen, Wudl, Heeger) · Science, 1995
  16. 16.DuPont Broadens OLED Base With Uniax Buy · Photonics Online, 2000
  17. 17.Goleta's DuPont Displays closes, lays off 41 employees · Pacific Coast Business Times, 2016
  18. 18.Konarka Technologies · Wikipedia
  19. 19.Polymer capacitor · Wikipedia
  20. 20.History of antisemitism in the United States · Wikipedia
  21. 21.Pogroms · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  22. 22.Alan J. Heeger (faculty profile) · UC Santa Barbara, College of Engineering
  23. 23.Crossref metadata record for 'Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions' (citation count) · Crossref, 2026

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 9 corrections made. How we check

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