Aug. 1, 2002 — Nobel laureate Alan MacDiarmid will join the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) full-time beginning Aug. 22 and fill its newly created James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology, the university announced today. The move is another feather in the cap for the 33-year-old institution, which launched its NanoTech Institute about a year ago with support from the state and Von Ehr, a Dallas-area entrepreneur.

MacDiarmid, a chemistry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, accepted a post as distinguished scholar in residence at UDT in 2001. He traveled between the two states for a year. In a news release, he said he chose UTD “because it has become evident to me that the university has made a serious commitment to advance into the ranks of the world’s leading institutions of research and higher education.”

He will serve in the chemistry and physics departments and oversee the Center for Scientific and Technical Innovations. He shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on electrically conductive plastics.

The endowed chair honors Von Ehr, CEO of the nanotech company Zyvex in Richardson, Texas. Von Ehr’s gift of $2.5 million and $500,000 from the state legislature helped UTD establish its nanotech research program, which now includes a half dozen well-known nanotechnology innovators.