MacDiarmid, Alan Graham (1927-2007)

New Zealand-born US chemist. With US physicist Alan J Heeger and Japanese chemist Hideki Shirakawa he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers. The research into conductive polymers applies to creating windows and electronic screens that block sunlight, as well as the production of smaller and faster computers.

In 1973, MacDiarmid began studying the polymeric material (SN)x, which showed the property of metallic conductivity. In 1975, he suggested to Shirakawa and Heeger that they collaborate to investigate the possible conductive properties of a new form of the polymer polyacetylene which Shirakawa had produced. The result of this collaboration was the development of a process to introduce iodine into the structure of polyacetylene to produce a plastic that conducted electricity.

MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, New Zealand. He was professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1964, becoming the Blanchard professor of chemistry in 1988.