Penn professor garners Nobel Prize

Chemistry Professor Alan MacDiarmid received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry yesterday, becoming the first Penn professor to win the prestigious award in 20 years.

MacDiarmid shares the honor with two others -- former Penn Professor Alan Heeger, now at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Hideki Shirakaw from the University of Tsukuba in Japan.

The three were honored for work stemming from a 1977 discovery of conducting polymers, or plastics that can be used for electricity much like metals.

"Everybody thinks that their own baby is beautiful, and it's very nice to know that someone else thinks your baby is beautiful," MacDiarmid said.

He added that "the fact that you can make a plastic into a metal... it's about as crazy as saying you can turn lead into gold."

MacDiarmid explained that their research has led to inventions like plastic batteries, new lighting technologies for displays in some new cars and cellular phones and cheap disposable plastic and paper electronic circuits.

"We have been taught that plastics, unlike metals, do not conduct electricity," according to a statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selected the recipients. "Yet this year's Nobel Laureates in Chemistry are being rewarded for their revolutionary discovery that plastic can, after certain modifications, be made electrically conductive."

MacDiarmid joined the Penn faculty in 1955, after attending school at the University of Wisconsin, University of Cambridge and University of New Zealand in his native country.

The researcher learned he had received the award early yesterday morning when a colleague from the University of Utah called to congratulate him.

"I said, 'This has got be a hoax,'" he joked.

MacDiarmid's recognition comes a year after Penn alum Ahmed Zewail won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999. But no University faculty member has won the Nobel Prize since 1980, when Economics Professor Lawrence Klein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

The $915,000 prize for Chemistry from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will be split between the three researchers.

"I was not surprised, I was thrilled," Chemistry Department Vice Chairman George Palladino said of his response to MacDiarmid's award. "Absolutely ecstatic."

Palladino, who came down from his home in the Poconos to celebrate with MacDiarmid yesterday, said MacDiarmid is "well-liked by students and faculty."

"I think it brings to Penn recognition for the kind of work that's so special here, work that's done at the border of classical sciences, interdisciplinary work," Palladino said.

University President Judith Rodin also praised MacDiarmid and his achievement.

"This is indeed a moment for great joy and celebration, as we join the Nobel committee in acknowledging the achievements of an outstanding research and faculty member," Rodin said in a statement.

"Alan MacDiarmid is a truly extraordinary scientist and we offer him and his colleagues our deepest and most heartfelt congratulations," she continued.

MacDiarmid said that he thinks teaching and research go hand in hand.

"I love both of them," he said. "I think it's a beautiful balance, having both the teaching and the research."

To celebrate the award, Palladino arranged a catered gathering in the basement of the Chemistry building last night. Throughout the event, students and colleagues approached MacDiarmid to offer their congratulations.

So how will the researcher celebrate? According to Palladino, MacDiarmid breaks into a traditional New Zealand tribal war dance on special occasions.

He didn't show off his moves yesterday -- but he's probably the first Nobel prize winner with dance chemistry.

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