03.09.2026 14:41
Hideki Shirakawa, the Japanese Nobel Prize-winning scientist known for the discovery of conductive polymers, has passed away at the age of 90. His work, for which he shared the prize in 2000, enabled electrical conductivity in plastics, paving the way for numerous applications.
Japanese scientist Shirakawa Hideki, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for his contributions to the discovery and development of conductive polymers, has passed away at the age of 90. Shirakawa broke new ground in the scientific world with his work demonstrating that plastics can conduct electricity.
Shirakawa Hideki, one of Japan's Nobel Prize-winning scientists, has died at the age of 90. According to Kyodo News, his death was announced by his family.
WON THE NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY IN 2000
Shirakawa, a professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with American scientists Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid.
Shirakawa became the ninth Japanese person to win a Nobel Prize and went down in history as the second scientist from Japan to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, following Kenichi Fukui in 1981.
THEY DEMONSTRATED THAT PLASTICS CAN CONDUCT ELECTRICITY
The work of the three scientists revealed that plastics can conduct electricity under certain conditions. Their studies, which combined the electrical conductivity of metals with the flexibility of polymers, paved the way for the development of conductive polymers and numerous new areas of application.