Never Lose Your Nerve!

The following sections is included:

• Dedication
• Prologue
• Acknowledgements
• Contents

In the 11th century, when the Moors were in Spain, the Caliph of Cordoba was one of the most powerful men in the world. As an old man, the Caliph wrote his memoir — as old men are prone to do — and in that memoir he commented that although he had had a good life, he had during his lifetime only 14 “ perfect days.” After learning of the Caliph's 14 perfect days, I awoke in the middle of the night. I am basically and fundamentally a competitor; surely I could list more than 14 perfect days in my life. I immediately started to make a mental list…

I showed the first indication of creativity in the physical sciences in 1940, in Akron, Iowa, when I was four years old. I am quite certain that I was four; we still lived in the “red” house, I had not yet started school, and I was not yet allowed to cross the street by myself…

I was born in 1936. I lived with my parents, Peter Jacob Heeger and Alice Minkin Heeger, in Akron, Iowa. Akron was a small town, perhaps better described as a village, of approximately 1,000 people. Akron existed as a local commercial center that supported the many small farms in the surrounding area. The “downtown” area was two blocks long on a single street. Akron is situated in the northwest corner of Iowa very near the South Dakota border. The Little Sioux River, which ran near the edge of town, forms the border between Iowa and South Dakota. The largest city in the area is Sioux City, Iowa, which had a population of approximately 80,000…

My father's illness started on Armistice Day, November 11, 1943. Armistice Day was a national holiday in honor of the signing of the documents that ended World War I. After the end of World War II, the holiday evolved into Veterans Day, as it is known today…

Behind the red house in Akron — at the back end of our huge yard — was an alley. The alley ran parallel to our street. Our street was relatively near the edge of town, so the next street farther away from the downtown area had few houses, but each was on a big lot. These houses on the other side of the alley were small, simple houses and not as nice as our house. The large lots were really something like small farms. My alley ran behind these little farms. There were vegetable gardens, chickens and goats running loose, and one of the lots had a pig pen…

Ruth is a biblical name. As told in the bible, Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi and the great-grandmother of King David. Her often quoted phrase is a statement of loyalty and personal commitment…

I was the first in my family to obtain an advanced degree and one of the first to go to university. As my career as a scientist began to emerge, I thought that perhaps there had been a great Rabbi in my ancestry, someone from whom I could trace the genes, but that seems not to be true. My Grandfather Heeger was described to me as a “somewhat crude” and uneducated man. The Heegers came from a town called Surhaz, in what is now Belarus, near the Russian border. The family emigrated from Russia by way of Odessa and immigrated into the United States through Ellis Island. Iowa was far from the centers of Jewish immigrant population in the eastern cities of the United States. Evidently, they were risk-takers; fortunately, I inherited those important risk-taking genes…

Ruth and I were married in the summer of 1957, and we departed from Omaha to start our life together, and to start my graduate studies. We departed without fear although we had nothing, no money — with only a naïve optimism and my undefined passion to go forward toward becoming a scientist. We left Omaha with a sense of excitement for our future together…

The following sections is included:

• Becoming a Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania

“Fire and Rain” is the name of a ballad written and sung by James Taylor. When I hear this song, either from a CD recording or a “recording” in the memory bank of my mind, I think of my friend Tony Jensen. In the first verse, Taylor sings: I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end, I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, But I always thought that I'd see you one more time again…

The degree of risk involved in an endeavor cannot be quantified in absolute terms. The degree of risk depends on the talent, the knowledge base and the skill of the person who is about to take on that endeavor. My son David is a very good skier; he skis at a level well beyond what is commonly termed Expert. David can safely go down steep and narrow slopes with ease and grace; he attacks such terrain without taking significant risk. Although I, too, call myself an Expert skier, were I to follow him down these most difficult ski runs, I would be taking great risk, risk of falling and severe injury or even death. In sports and in science, the degree of risk depends on the talent, the knowledge base and the skill of the person who is about to take the risk…

The telephone rang at 5:45 am. I knew — suspected, hoped that I knew — who was calling. The date was October 10, 2000, the week during which the Nobel Prizes for the year 2000 were being announced. The Prize in Medicine and Physiology had been announced in Stockholm the day before. Today was to be the day for the announcements of the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry…

The market growth for Plastic Electronics is accelerating as the performance of the various devices improves. The transistor is, of course, the circuit element that enabled modern electronics. The Field Effect Transistor (FET), alternatively known as the Thin Film Transistor (TFT), is an electronic switch. The mobility (μ) of the electrons passing through the FET defines how much current can be switched by the FET and how fast that current can be turned on or off. Mobility is therefore the “Figure of Merit” for utility of polymer-based FETs in applications. Although FETs fabricated from semiconducting polymers were first demonstrated more than 20 years ago, μ was far too small to be useful in technology. Over many years, the mobilities gradually increased to values approaching that of amorphous Si (~ 1 cm²/Vs). To have impact on electronics technology, however, plastic transistors must have mobilities significantly higher; for example, high enough for use in radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs), or high enough to drive the pixels in a hand-held display or a TV — either for high-end LCD displays or for Active Matrix Organic LED Displays. Many thought that this was a hopeless quest…

The red, heart-shaped bathtub in the middle of the hotel room in Iowa City, Iowa, saved our marriage…

After leaving Iowa City, the remainder of the drive across the country to Santa Barbara was enjoyable and relaxing. We drove through Colorado, visiting Durango and Mesa Verde, and then through Arizona, where we stopped for a few days at the Grand Canyon. We arrived in Santa Barbara on August 10, 1982. Our furniture arrived on August 11, 1982, on the 25th anniversary of our wedding day, and we moved into our Santa Barbara house on the Riviera high above the city with spectacular views of both the sea and the mountains…

Every year, Forbes magazine publishes a list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. In 1983, that list was published in the Fall issue of Forbes magazine. My name was not on the list. In a separate, following article in the same issue, Forbes published a list of 100 names which — they predicted — would be included in a future list of the wealthiest Americans, people who were well on their way to a level of financial success that would place them on the Forbes 400 list. My name was not on the “to be” list either…

Niels Bohr was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. His theory of the hydrogen atom, published in 1913, was a major step toward the development of quantum mechanics. Bohr was a Dane and lived in Copenhagen with his wife, Margrethe. He was known as being particularly careful; it is said that he typically wrote 17 drafts of every paper, each of which Margrethe typed in full, before he was satisfied that the article was ready to be sent for publication. He also loved to discuss physics with his colleagues, and spent many hours “decanting” his results again and again to assure clarity. Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. The Danish Government founded an Institute of Theoretical Physics to honor Niels Bohr name; The Bohr Institute in Copenhagen…

Solar cells convert sunlight to electricity. The energy from the sunlight that falls on the Earth in one hour is sufficient to satisfy the energy needs of our planet for one year. The power of the sun is a truly renewable source of energy. Thus, the discovery of the silicon solar cell at the Bell Laboratories in 1954 provided a pathway to renewable — and non-polluting — energy…

The following sections are included:

• September 11, 2001 — The Birth of CBRITE Inc.
• Cynvenio and CytomX

Nearly everyone is familiar with the book by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind, in which she tells the remarkable story of the schizophrenia and subsequent recovery of John Nash, Jr. Although his journey into mental illness was extreme, the creative mind is a delicate beast. Among creative people, including great scientists and Nobel Laureates, mental illness is not uncommon…

I visited the physics department at Princeton a few years ago, and got involved in an unusual lunchtime discussion. The question was quite simple: Would the human race someday become extinct! I honestly had not thought about this subject ever before, and the initial thought in my brain was: “No! This could not happen.” Over the course of the next half-hour, however, it became clear that extinction was a definite (and perhaps even likely) possibility…

The following sections is included:

• Final Comments: Mentoring Young Scientists
• Index