Description
Book SynopsisNever Lose Your Nerve! chronicles the ups and downs of a Nobel Laureate's life. Professor Alan J Heeger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 together with Professor Alan G MacDiarmid and Professor Hideki Shirakawa. Filled with humor, this book tells Professor Heeger's story — his love for his family, especially how his wife's love has always been his guiding light, his progress from a young student to an eminent scientist, his passion for the theatre and its impact on his science, his adventures as a successful entrepreneur, and his personal losses. Many think of scientists as risk-adverse individuals but Professor Heeger shows the absolute necessity of risk in research and that scientists are, in fact, risk-addicted, as taking the first, risky step into unfamiliar territory is a step in the right direction towards creativity and great discoveries. Never lose your nerve and you will be rewarded. Life is an exciting adventure and this book clearly demonstrates it, and is for those who are looking to impact others.'Perhaps the greatest pleasure of being a scientist is to have an abstract idea, then to do an experiment (more often a series of experiments is required) that demonstrates the idea was correct; that is, Nature actually behaves as conceived in the mind of the scientist. This process is the essence of creativity in science. I have been fortunate to have experienced this intense pleasure many times in my life.'Alan J Heeger
Table of ContentsPerfect Days - and Some Not so Perfect; The First Indication of Creativity; Miracles Actually Happen!; Coming to Acceptance of My Mortality; The Wart and the Penny - The Importance of Uncorrelated Events; "Whither thou goest, I will go"; Passion for a Career as a Physicist; From Novice to Professor; The Pathway to Great Science; "Fire and Rain"; Risk, Creativity and Discovery - Again; The Nobel Prize in Chemistry; The Creativity Continues: High Mobility Polymer Thin Film Transistors; Decision to Go West - Was it the KGB?; Life and Science in Santa Barbara; California Entrepreneur: UNIAX Corporation; The Impact of Theatre in our Lives; Low Cost "Plastic" Solar Cells - A Dream Becoming Reality; The Serial Entrepreneur: Cynvenio Biosystems, CytomX and CBRITE Inc.; The Delicacy of the Creative Mind; The Joy of Life; Final Comments: Mentoring Young Scientists;
