Stephanie L Kwolek Award 2010 Winner

Fred Wudl
University of California at Santa Barbara

Awarded for his pioneering work of applied polymer synthesis for the preparation of polymeric conductors, semiconductors and ferromagnets.

About the Winner

Fred Wudl, Professor of Chemistry and Materials and Co-Director of the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), received his B.S. (1964) and Ph.D. (1967) degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where his dissertation work was done with Professor Donald J. Cram. 

After postdoctoral research with R.B. Woodward at Harvard, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo.  He then moved, first in 1972 to AT&T Bell Laboratories, and subsequently to UCSB in 1982, and then UCLA from 1997 to 2006.

He is widely known for his work on organic conductors and superconductors with the discovery of the electronic conductivity of the precursor to the first organic metal and superconductor.  His interest in electronically conducting polymers resulted in discovery of the first transparent organic conductor and the first self-doped polymers.

Currently he is interested in the optical and electrooptical properties of processable conjugated polymers as well as in the organic chemistry of fullerenes and the design and preparation of self-mending and self-healing materials.

He has received numerous awards and honours and has published over 500 papers.