SEE
PHOTOS
OF THE BELOW EVENT AT: http://www.utdallas.edu/library/special/photops.html
See the write up of 1/17 MacDiarmid / Chen forum on pages 4-5 of: http://web.mit.edu/entforum/www/focus_online/Spring2002.pdf
Read "Tech
powerhouses light up the MIT Enterprise Forum" in the 1/18/2002
issue of DFW TechBiz
January 17, 2002 at the UTD Conference Center
5:00 pm - Book Signing & Reception with wine and light buffet
6:30 - 8:00 pm - Program
presentation
Admission is $35 ($25 for CIE members) $10 for students .
For
reservations call Mary Langford at 972-377-4554, or email to mitforum@juno.com
A Conversation with Two Great Inventors of the Future
Nobel Laureate Alan
MacDiarmid and Serial Entrepreneur WuFu Chen
The Conversation Leader:
The Great Inventors:
-
Alan MacDiarmid, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate 2000 and UTDallas Resident Scholar
-
Wu-Fu Chen, Legendary Entrepreneur
Program:
Alan MacDiarmid, Ph.D. and Wu-Fu Chen come from two ends of the spectrum of
futuristic high tech business development. Dr. MacDiarmid discovers and invents
technological wonders and Mr. Chen creates multiple sustainable businesses
around technological innovations. Both of their internationally recognized
achievements have had and will have a positive impact on the progress of new
technology businesses.
Dr. MacDiarmid, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 and UTDallas
Resident Scholar in its new NanoTech Institute, is sometimes called the
"Father of Conducting Polymer." He will share his vision of the newest
technology paradigms.
Mr. Chen's serial entrepreneurship has spawned some 14 companies over the
past two decades. He is best known for Cascade which had a market cap of $10
billion. He will share his secrets of entrepreneurial success with leading edge
technologies.
The conversation with Dr. MacDiarmid and Mr. Chen will be led by Scott
Bennett. Questions from the audience will be welcome at the end of the formal
conversation. At the reception prior to the program, the author, Ellen Hao, will
autograph Mr. Chen's biography, From Zero to $10 Billion, written in Chinese,
for those who wish to purchase the book. An English language version will soon
be available.
Admission is $35 ($25 for CIE members) $10 for students Please reserve by
noon 15 January for the 17 January program. Seating will be limited; advance
reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. This program
is being presented with the cooperation of the Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE).
Bios:
Wu-Fu Chen began his career with product development and staff scientist
positions at Bytex and Wang Laboratories before founding his first company,
Communications Equipment Corporation. Chen helped Cascade Communications grow to
a major market position in the data communications world, and eventually oversaw
the company's sale to Ascend in 1997. Among the ten companies founded or
co-founded by Chen is Ardent Communications, which was purchased by Cisco in
1997. Chen's most recent success was evident in the sale of Shasta Networks (a
company he co-founded), to Nortel Networks in 1999. Chen received his
undergraduate training from National Taiwan University, and earned a Masters in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida at Gainesville.
After founding more than 10 successful companies in the communications
sector, Mr.WuFu Chen will share secrets of entrepreneurial success with leading
edge technologies. Mr. Chen's success began in California's Bay Area and
now he is involved in two start-ups in Texas. In addition to being a serial
founder of successful companies, he has been invited to join a venture capital
firm, Palo Alto-based Crimson Ventures, as managing director to lead its
communications investment practice.
Among the companies Mr. Chen has founded or is serving as managing partner,
board member, chairman or CEO are Cascade Communications, Acorn Campus, Genesis
Campus, Optimight Communications, Anda Networks, Cinta, Rapidstream, Geyser
Networks, Newtone Communications, Cwill Telecommunications, Santera Systems,
Navini Networks, ZettCom, Polaris Networks, Vweb, Axon Photonics, Pine Photonics,
Sanera Systems, and Astral Point Communications.
Alan MacDiarmid, co-discoverer of conducting polymers, more commonly
known as "synthetic metals," began research on (SN)x, an unusual
polymeric material with metallic conductivity in 1973. His interest in organic
conducting polymers increased when in 1975 he was introduced to a new form of
polyacetylene by Dr. Hideki Shirakawa at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The
ensuing collaboration between MacDiarmid, Shirakawa and Alan Heeger (then at the
Department of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania) led to the historic
discovery of metallic conductivity in an organic polymer. The great importance
of this work was recognized when MacDiarmid, Heeger and Shirakawa won the Nobel
prize in Chemistry in 2000 (he was the chemist responsible in 1977 for the
chemical and electrochemical doping of polyacetylene, (CH)x, the
"prototype" conducting polymer, and the "rediscovery" of
polyaniline, now the foremost industrial conducting polymer.). Professor
MacDiarmid was born in New Zealand 71 years ago and after obtaining his higher
education at the University of New Zealand, the University of Wisconsin and
Cambridge University he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in
1955, where he is currently Blanchard Professor of Chemistry
Admission is $35 ($25 for CIE members) $10 for students .
For
reservations and details of this program, call Mary Langford at 972-377-4554, or email to mitforum@juno.com
