Hideki Shirakawa: key obituary facts
Is Hideki Shirakawa dead? Yes. Hideki Shirakawa died on August 24, 2026, at age 90.
Cause of death: Hideki Shirakawa's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Hideki Shirakawa known for?
He was a Japanese scientist (1936–).
More about Hideki Shirakawa
Born: 20 August 1936.
Place of birth: Tokyo.
Gender: male.
Occupation: chemist, engineer, professor, academic.
Nationality: Japan.
Education: Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania.
Employer: University of Tsukuba.
Awards: Order of Culture, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Person of Cultural Merit.
Also known as: Shirakawa Hideki.
Known for: Conductive polymers.
Hideki Shirakawa, the Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize laureate whose work on conductive polymers helped reshape materials science, died on August 24, 2026, aged 90.
Born in Tokyo on August 20, 1936, Shirakawa studied at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania before joining the University of Tsukuba, where he later became professor emeritus. He was best known for his discovery of conductive polymers and shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Alan MacDiarmid and Alan Heeger.
Over a career that also included work as a chemist, engineer and academic, he received Japan’s Order of Culture and was named a Person of Cultural Merit.