PHILADELPHIA -- University of Pennsylvania Professor and Nobel Laureate Alan G. MacDiarmid received the Friendship Award today from Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu at a ceremony in Beijing.  This year, the annual Friendship Award was conferred on 84 foreign experts for their outstanding contributions to China's economic and social development.   

MacDiarmid was honored for his work as chairman of the Alan G. MacDiarmid Institute at Jilin University in ChangChun, China, and professor in Jilin University Chemistry Department.

In 2000, MacDiarmid, Blanchard Professor of Chemistry in Penn School of Arts and Sciences, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contribution to the discovery of how plastic polymers can conduct electricity, a development that ushered in a new field of study and led to array of industrial and consumer products.  

 Born in Masterton, New Zealand, MacDiarmid is author or co-author of more than 600 research papers.  He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of New Zealand and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Cambridge in England.  MacDiarmid is also the James Von Her Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he also holds an appointment as professor of chemistry and physics.