Nobel winner to map out route to the Prize

Alan J. Heeger, co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will discuss “Risk and Innovation in Science – A Personal History: The Route to the Nobel Prize” during a two-day visit to campus Feb. 7-8.

Heeger, who has been credited with making discoveries that led to the development of plastic electronics, will speak on Monday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. in Packard Lab Auditorium.
His talk, part of the Distinguished Lecture Series of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, will discuss the connection between creativity and risk-taking in scientific research and the development of technology.
On Tuesday, Feb. 8, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in Room 91 of the Rauch Business Center, Heeger will hold a public master class for student researchers. Five undergraduate and four graduate students will make presentations on their research projects at Heeger’s “Nobel Master Class on Research Strategy and Creativity.”
Heeger will question the students about their projects and suggest next steps, said Donald Rockwell, the Paul B. Reinhold Professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, who is organizing the lecture and the master class.
The students, who represent nine major fields in the engineering college and the College of Arts and Sciences, will give the following presentations:
* “Vision-based Approach to Networking” by Humberto Sermeno-Villarta ’05, a computer science major
* “Models for Outbound Call Centers” by Arleigh Waring ’05 (industrial engineering)
* “Fault Rupture History” by Christine Regalla ’05 (earth and environmental sciences)
* “Bone Growth in Zebrafish Fins” by Julianna Harvey ’05 (bioengineering)
* “Sonochemical Synthesis” by Esther Pesciotta ’05 (biochemistry)
* “Seismic Response of Structures” by Larry Fahnestock, a graduate student in civil engineering
* “Collapsed Respiratory Airway” by Michael Capozzi, a graduate student in chemical engineering
* “Heavy Metal Distribution in Wetland Plants” by Jennifer Wollenberg, a graduate student in earth and environmental sciences
* “Role of Food in Fertility” by Laura Szymanski, a graduate student in molecular biology
Heeger is professor of physics and professor of materials at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
He shared the Nobel Prize with Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa. The three were colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1970s when they made discoveries that led to the development of plastic electronics, including flexible transistors and light-emitting plastic displays.
A reception will be held for Heeger in the lobby of Packard Auditorium at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7.
--Kurt Pfitzer