Semiconducting and Metallic Polymers: The Fourth Generation of Polymeric Materials (Nobel Lecture) Copyright(c) The Nobel Foundation 2001. We thank the Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, for permission to print this lecture.

When asked to explain the importance of the discovery of conducting polymers, I offer two basic answers: first they did not (could not?) exist, and second, that they offer a unique combination of properties not available from any other known materials. The first expresses an intellectual challenge; the second expresses a promise for utility in a wide variety of applications.