Alan MacDiarmid
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Alan Graham MacDiarmid ONZ, (born April 14 1927) is a chemist. He was one of three people awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on conductive polymers.
MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, New Zealand. His family was relatively poor, and the Great Depression made life difficult. At around age ten, he developed an interest in chemistry from one of his father's old textbooks, and he instructed himself on the subject from this book and from library books. He later worked as an assistant at the chemistry department of Victoria University of Wellington, and eventually studied there. He graduated in 1951 with first class honours, and won a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a PhD, which he received in 1953. He received another Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1955. He later worked in the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews and is currently faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas at Dallas.
MacDiarmid still maintains a laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, though mostly travels around the world for speaking engagements that impress upon listeners the value of globalizing the effort of innovation in the 21st century. Last instructing in 2001, MacDiarmid elected to lead a small seminar of incoming freshmen about his research activities.
The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University is named after him.
He was awarded New Zealand highest honour Order of New Zealand in 2001.
[edit] External links
- Nobel autobiography
- MacDiarmid's page at the University of Pennsylvania
- New Zealand Edge biography
- Interview with Alan MacDiarmid Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | MacDiarmid, Alan Graham |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 24, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Masterton, New Zealand |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
es:Alan G MacDiarmid fr:Alan MacDiarmid it:Alan G. MacDiarmid pl:Alan G. MacDiarmid pt:Alan MacDiarmid ro:Alan G. MacDiarmid sk:Alan Graham MacDiarmid fi:Alan G. MacDiarmid sv:Alan MacDiarmid
Categories: Nobel laureates in Chemistry | New Zealand chemists | 1927 births | Living people | New Zealand-Americans | Members of the Order of New Zealand | University of St Andrews academics | University of Pennsylvania faculty | Members and associates of the US National Academy of Sciences | Alumni of the University of Cambridge | University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni
