Symposium honours memory of Nobel Prize winner

May 16, 2007

The University of Wollongong today (Wednesday 16 May) hosted the inaugural Alan MacDiarmid symposium on organic conductors in memory of the late Nobel Prize winner.

Professor MacDiarmid won the Nobel Prize for the revolutionary discovery that plastic can, after certain modifications, be made electrically conductive.

Professor MacDiarmid, a New Zealander, had a great affinity for both Australian and New Zealand science and New Zealand was well represented at today's symposium.

He led the International Advisory Boards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology in their formative years.

Professor MacDiarmid died on February 7 this year and in his memory both the Centres agreed to establish the Alan MacDiarmid Symposium on Organic Conductors. The symposium will be held on alternative years in Australia and New Zealand.

The Executive Research Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Professor Gordon Wallace, said the symposium would celebrate Alan MacDiarmid's incredible achievements in the field of organic conductors and the inspiration and leadership he provided to many young scientists around the world.

Speakers today included scientists from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France and Denmark.