Japanese scientist Shirakawa, co-winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 90

Japanese scientist Hideki Shirakawa, co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering and developing conductive polymers, has died.

The discovery by Shirakawa and two fellow American scientists, Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid, demonstrated that plastic could conduct electricity like metal and be used in applications such as electronics.

Shirakawa died on Aug. 24, according to the University of Tsukuba, where he taught and researched after joining in 1979.