Hideki Shirakawa (born in Tokyo on August 20, 1936) is a Japanese chemist and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of conductive polymers together with physics professor Alan J. Heeger and chemistry professor Alan G. MacDiarmid at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1976, he was invited to work in the laboratory of Alan MacDiarmid as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. The two developed the electrical conductivity of polyacetylene along with American physicist Alan Heeger. In 1977 they discovered that doping with iodine vapor could enhance the conductivity of polyacetylene.
1961 Graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Chemical engineering department in the School of Science and Engineering.
1966 Received doctorate from Chemical engineering department in Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Tokyo Tech. Obtained the post of assistant in Chemical Resources Laboratory at Tokyo Tech.
1976 Post-doctoral researcher in the University of Pennsylvania, USA with invitation by Alan MacDiarmid.
1979 Assistant professor in University of Tsukuba, Japan
1982 Professor in University of Tsukuba, Japan
1991 Chief of Science and Engineering Department of Graduate School in University of Tsukuba, Japan (- March,1993)
1994 Chief of Category #3 group in University of Tsukuba, Japan (-March,1997)