Nobel Prize in chemistry to Springfield native
One of this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry winners is a Massachusetts man.
The Nobel committee says 79-year-old Richard Heck was born in Springfield.
Heck and Japanese researchers Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki won the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing a chemical method that has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the award honors their development of palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic systems.
Heck earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from UCLA and was a chemistry professor at the University of Delaware until his retirement in 1989.
He is a currently professor emeritus at the University of Delaware.
