Alan Heeger was born in 1936 in Sioux City, Iowa, USA. He enrolled in studies of physics and mathematics at the University of Nebraska and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of California in Berkeley in 1961. In 2000 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery and development of conductive polymers”. Together with Alan G. MacDiarmid at the University of Pennsylvania’s Physics Department Heeger had discovered that plastic can be made electrically conductive. He subsequently contributed to developing conductive polymer research into a field of great importance for chemists as well as physicists. As Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids at the University of California at Santa Barbara Alan Heeger remains active in these research areas. He recently initiated studies in the area of biosensors and published articles on gene sensors that can be used to find certain sequences in DNA molecules.