Alan J. Heeger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for “the discovery and development of conductive polymers.” Although physics teachers had long taught that plastic could not conduct electricity, Heeger and his colleagues discovered a new class of polymer materials that have the electronic properties of semi-conductors and metals. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He has received honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Japan, and China. He founded UNIAX Corporation in 1990 and served as Chairman until 2000 when the company was acquired by DuPont. He holds forty patents and has authored over 650 scholarly publications. Heeger is currently professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.