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alaN g. MacdiarMid
1927–2007
elected in 2002
“For the co-discovery and development of conductive polymers.”
By ray H. BaUgHMaN
alaN graHaM MacdiarMid, who shared the 2000
Nobel Prize in chemistry with alan Heeger and Hideki
shirakawa, died on february 7, 2007, at age 79.
His fundamental and applied discoveries ushered in the
second age of polymers, in which organic polymers became
fully functional electronic materials. His mentorship and
encouragement inspired generations of students. He taught
them that “theories come and go, but the facts go on forever,
so you have to get the facts correct.”
alan was born in New Zealand on april 14, 1927, to loving
parents and a supportive family impoverished by the great
Depression. Though getting food on the table was difficult,
they shared what little they had with friends and neighbors.
This tradition of giving even when it was very difficult was in
alan’s makeup, and he believed that winning the Nobel Prize
gave him a special obligation to advance humankind. While
suffering from frequent skin cancer, a broken hip, and a blood
disease that was expected to soon end his life, he nonetheless
struggled ahead on the day of his death to begin a 10-day trip
to New Zealand for keynote lectures, governmental meetings,
a television interview, and a likely last farewell to family.
alan never forgot his origins; he went barefoot to primary
school in a two-room schoolhouse, where he reported, “Most
of my school chums were Maori boys and girls from whom i
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298 MeMorial TriBUTes
learned so much.”* in their honor and in the celebration of life,
alan danced the spirited Maori haka at the all-night student
celebration ending the Nobel Prize ceremonies and at many
other celebrations until he died.
alan’s love of chemistry began because of his thirst for
knowledge and understanding, which lasted a lifetime and
enabled him to do pioneering research in diverse fields of
chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, and engineering.
at the age of 10, he began reading his father’s chemistry
textbook from the late 1800s and performing experiments
from The Boy Chemist, which he discovered in a library.
When he had to leave high school at 16 to help support his
family, he found a part-time job as a lab assistant and janitor
in the chemistry department of Victoria University college in
New Zealand. alan began his academic career there, earning a
bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. He earned doctorates
from the University of Wisconsin and cambridge University
and subsequently became a professor at the University
of Pennsylvania. His initial pioneering breakthroughs in
cambridge and Philadelphia were in silicon chemistry,
which earned him the 1971 Frederic Stanley Kipping Award
of the american chemical society. He became professor of
chemistry and James Von ehr distinguished chair in science
and Technology at the University of Texas at dallas in 2002.
The same year he became a member of the National academy
of engineering and the National academy of sciences and was
inducted into the order of New Zealand, the highest honor
bestowed by his country of birth.
The voyage that led to the Nobel Prize for the discovery
of conducting organic polymers began long ago. While at
Victoria University college and just starting his career, alan
MacDiarmid published his first paper in 1949, which was on
the cyclic monomer s4N4. Much later, in 1973, Mort labes’s
team at Temple University showed that an inorganic polymer
derived from s4N4, called (sN)x, is metallic down to 4 K. Alan
Macdiarmid and alan Heeger subsequently reported in 1977
that bromine doping increased the room temperature electrical
conductivity of (sN)x 10-fold.
* from nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2000/macdiarmid autobio.html.
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alaN g. MacdiarMid
Then came the famous meeting in Japan, over cups of
green tea, between alan Macdiarmid and Hideki shirakawa.
Both had metallic-looking polymers; alan’s was an inorganic
polymeric metal—(sN)x—that looked like gold, and Hideki’s
was a poor conductor that looked like aluminum foil but was
the organic polymer polyacetylene— (cH)x. They developed a
joint goal of understanding why (cH)x is such a poor conductor
and of using this understanding to transform this beautiful
organic polymer into a metallic conductor.
Money was needed to bring shirakawa together with
Macdiarmid and Heeger at the University of Pennsylvania.
Alan MacDiarmid has remarked, “Vision without funding is
hallucination.” Fortunately, program manager Ken Wynne
from the Office of Naval Research happened to have $21,650
left in his program account, which he gave to support Hideki
shirakawa’s visit. once together, Heeger’s deep insights into
the physics of molecular charge-transfer complexes could
be combined with Macdiarmid’s and shirakawa’s seminal
chemical insights to make, characterize, understand, and
exploit the first highly conducting organic polymer.
In the early days of the conducting polymer field, Alan
MacDiarmid was frequently asked, “What use are these
metallic organic polymers?”—to which he would respond,
“Of what use is a beautiful poem?” or “Of what use is a
newborn baby?” yet alan was already translating the pure
poetry of science into the demonstratively useful language
that enabled companies around the world to begin developing
new products. realized or proposed products resulting from
his work with colleagues include, for example, antistatic
and corrosion protection materials, electromagnetic shields,
light-emitting devices, solar cells, sensors, artificial muscles,
transistors, supercapacitors, batteries, electrochromic displays,
and fuel cells. alan often brought demonstrations of his
newest invention to lectures, such as a fan powered by the first
conducting polymer battery.
rising up and down like a wild stallion, alan carried my
three-year-old son, alex, on his back a decade ago. in much
the same way, alan carried his students through early learning
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experiences, bringing them to the point where they could ride
the wild bronco of discovery on their own. His former students
are leaders in science and technology around the world, and
in his honor alan g. Macdiarmid institutes have been started
in China, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, and
Brazil. after his death, we renamed our NanoTech institute
at the University of Texas at dallas in his memory. Because of
Alan, we now have more Nobel Prize “holders” in Texas than
anywhere else in the world—alan always passed his Nobel
Prize medallion among the many high school students that he
lectured.
alan was a hero in so many ways. He often said that
“Science is people,” and he lived his conviction by inspiring
generations of scientists and technologists. students at poster
sessions always found him ready to listen. after asking them
penetrating questions he would usually say, “Ah, this is so
interesting!” This response from a Nobel Prize winner deeply
inspired young scientists and engineers.
When there was the possibility of a catastrophic explosion,
alan was the one ready to risk his life to save others. an excited
student once ran into Alan’s office saying that he might have
condensed acetylene into the liquid state, thereby possibly
creating a powerful bomb. The fire department cleared the
building, and alan volunteered to go into harm’s way to
eliminate the risk. With others safely distant, alan donned
bomb disposal clothing and used a fishing rod to open a valve
to avert a potential catastrophe.
despite the many arrows in his body, no one could stop
alan from always climbing back into the saddle, from which
he finally fell only as he was dying. Alan was a man for all
seasons, so very exuberant, loving, sensitive, and active
in responding to individual human needs and those of
humankind. The institutes he founded and nourished with
his scientific insights and support span the world, and there
would have been others and many more breakthroughs if he
had lived just a little longer.
He is survived by his loving wife, sister, four children, nine
grandchildren, and friends too numerous to count.
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