Professor Mrinal Thakur Demands His Due Credit in 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

In a press meet in Kolkata on 3rd August, Professor Mrinal Thakur said, while The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is in agreement that the basic scientific assumption in the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is incorrect and plagiarism was a critical issue in the case of 2014 Nobel Prize, the Academy has not taken any initiative to make requisite corrections and provide due credit to him.

Currently working as the Director of Photonic Materials Research Laboratory at Auburn University (USA), Professor Thakur was nominated for the Chemistry Nobel Prize by the scientific academia for 22 times. Thakur’s Equation has been acclaimed globally as based on his scientific theory on nonlinear optics providing quantitative measure of super-resolution depending on laser pulse intensity.

As it appears at the website of The Nobel Foundation, “key property of a conductive polymer is the presence of conjugated double bonds along the backbone of the polymer. In conjugation, the bonds between the carbon atoms are alternately single and double.” Also, “For a polymer to be able to conduct electric current it must consist alternately of single and double bonds between carbon atoms”. These fundamental statements are nonfactual incorrect since these disregard existence of “Nonconjugated” Conductive Polymers and their impacts.

The RSAS gave the Chemistry Nobel Prize to Heeger, MacDiarmid and Shirakawa for the discovery of “Conductive Polymers” while they discovered only the “Conjugated” conductive polymers. But the discovery of “Nonconjugated” Conductive Polymers by Professor Thakur was ignored.

“If Heeger, MacDiarmid and Shirakawa received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of “Conjugated”conductive polymer, why I am not being recognized for my discovery of the “Nonconjugated” Conductive Polymers?”, asked Dr Thakur. He demands immediate recognition of the “Correct” basic assumption made by him.

Professor Thakur used Coulomb Correlation theory which applies to both Nonconjugated and Conjugated Conductive Polymers while other theories developed only considering Conjugated Conductive Polymers may lead to incorrect conclusions. “Conjugated” conductive polymer indeed is a special case of “Nonconjugated” conductive polymer.

Professor Thakur demands he discovered “Nonconjugated” Conductive Polymers around the same time as that of the discovery of “Conductive Polymers” by Heeger, MacDiarmid and Shirakawa. Here, the blatant violation of academic norms and human rights come to light.

As stated earlier, though the RSAS is in agreement with Professor Thakur that the fundamental basis given in the document preserved for the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is incorrect/nonfactual, the RSAS has not taken steps to make requisite corrections and accord due credit to Professor Thakur.

Professor Thakur also stated that those receiving the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2014 did so by plagiarizing from his experimental and theoretical works in nonlinear optics.

Prof. Thakur claims that the Nobel Committee failed to follow their statutes (Statutes of The Nobel Foundation) in decisions on 2000 and 2014 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. The relevant statute (1) goes as follows: the prize will go “to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement”.

It is in this backdrop that Professor Thakur demands immediate resolution to the four critical issues which have remained unaddressed for long many years:

• No credit was given to Professor Thakur in 2000 Nobel Prize and afterwards for his discovery of “Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers.”

•Royal Swedish Academy is yet to correct the document preserved at the Nobel Foundation website despite repeated requests. The document states a polymer must be conjugated to be electrically conductive which is nonfactual and the corresponding theory as given is incorrect / inapplicable,

•Professor Thakur’s research funding was abruptly stopped in 2003 as he brought up the incorrectness and inequity regarding the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. . Professor Thakur stakes claim to the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry as well since “Super-resolved Fluorescence Microscopy” (2014 Nobel in Chemistry)is primarily based on earlier nonlinear optical experimental and theoretical studies performed by Professor Thakur and colleagues on organic materials.

•Professor Thakur did not receive credit in the 2000 Nobel Prize. Again in 2014, the Nobel Committee did not give him credit for his equation and the underlying fundamental experimental and theoretical works on nonlinear optics that were critical for super-resolved fluorescence microscopy!