born Jan. 22, 1936, Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
U.S. chemist.
He received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1961. With Alan G. MacDiarmid and Shirakawa Hideki , Heeger determined that certain plastics can be chemically modified to conduct electricity almost as readily as metals. The finding led to the discovery of other conductive polymers and contributed to the emerging field of molecular electronics. Heeger, who taught at several institutions, founded the UNIAX Corp. in 1990. In 2000 he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with MacDiarmid and Shirakawa.