Nobel Chemistry Prize Winner Hideki Shirakawa Dies At 90
· World · NDTV, Ars Technica
Japanese scientist Hideki Shirakawa, who co-won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering and developing conductive polymers, has died at the age of 90. Shirakawa, along with American scientists Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid, demonstrated that plastic could conduct electricity like metal, paving the way for applications in electronics and solar cells. He passed away on August 24 at a hospital in Yokohama, west of Tokyo, with the cause of death not specified. Born in Tokyo in 1936, Shirakawa earned his doctoral degree in engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1966. He worked as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the University of Tsukuba in 1979.
Why it matters
The discovery of conductive polymers by Shirakawa and his colleagues has significant implications for the development of flexible and lightweight materials used in various electronic applications. This breakthrough affects the production of solar cells, mobile phone screens, and other electronic devices.
Read the original report — NDTV
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