Alan Graham MacDiarmid ONZ (April 14, 1927 – February 7, 2007) was a chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.
He was born in Masterton, New Zealand as one of five children - three brothers and two sisters. His family was relatively poor, and the Great Depression made life difficult in Masterton, due to which his family shifted to Lower Hutt, a few miles from Wellington, New Zealand. At around age ten, he deve...
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Alan Graham MacDiarmid ONZ (April 14, 1927 – February 7, 2007) was a chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.
He was born in Masterton, New Zealand as one of five children - three brothers and two sisters. His family was relatively poor, and the Great Depression made life difficult in Masterton, due to which his family shifted to Lower Hutt, a few miles from Wellington, New Zealand. At around age ten, he developed an interest in chemistry from one of his father's old textbooks, and he taught himself from this book and from library books. He was educated at Hutt Valley High School and Victoria University of Wellington.
In 1943, MacDiarmid passed the University of New Zealand's University Entrance Exam and its Medical Preliminary Exam. He then took up a part-time job as a "lab boy" or janitor in Victoria University of Wellington, during his studies for a BSc degree, which he completed in 1947. He was then appointed demonstrator in the undergraduate...
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