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Heck, 84, along
with Japanese Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, won the Nobel
prize in chemistry in 2010 for inventing new ways to bind carbon
atoms that were used in research to fight cancer and produce
thin computer screens.
He was affiliated with the University of Delaware in the United
States when he developed his work on palladium as a catalyst,
called the Heck reaction, in the 1960s and early 1970s. The two
Japanese scientists came through with their variants of the same
process in the late 1970s.
He retired in the Philippines in 2006 along with his Filipina
wife, Socorro Nardo-Heck. Socorro died two years after Heck won
his Nobel prize, said Michael Nardo, Socorro's nephew, who had
been looking after Heck since his wife's death. The couple was
childless.
Heck was often depressed after his wife died, Nardo told
Reuters. He had been in and out of the hospital since 2013, when
he survived a serious bout of pneumonia.
"He lost almost half of his strength after the pneumonia
episode," Nardo said.
Heck survived prostate cancer and had been taking medication for
diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a slight
dementia, Nardo said.
Two personal nurses took turns taking care of him in his home in
recent months.
"It's very sad. He was relying on his monthly pension of $2,500
to get by," Nardo said.
Heck died in hospital after suffering a bout of severe vomiting
earlier this week.
(Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco)
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