Adam Heller received his M. Sc. and Ph.D. from E. D. Bergmann at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In 1975, he joined ATT Bell Laboratories, where he headed the Electronic Materials Research Department from 1977 until 1988. He joined the engineering faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in 1988. The SEAC Reilley Award recognizes Adam for his contributions to the field of electroanalytical chemistry through his work on biosensors. Adam's work has been at the center of the resurgence of interest in sensors. Adam's work emphasizes electrochemistry and materials science, and is unique in its direct coupling of science to important clinical applications. He push the frontiers of electroanalytical chemistry by his emphasis on "in sensor" power sources. The engineering scientist's approach that Adam brings to the science of electroanalytical chemistry and sensors continues to give electroanalytical chemistry a big push. Adam's communication skills, have promoted the new ideas and science forcefully.

Heller is also weel known as the first to build inorganic liquid lasers. He also designed the lithium thionyl chloride battery with J.J. Auborn. He established the field of electrical connection ("wiring") of redox centers of enzymes to electrodes and co-founded Therasense, Inc. in 1996 with his son Ephraim. FreeStyle™, the blood glucose monitor product of TheraSense, is the only mass manufactured fluidic device, requiring only 300 nL blood, a sample so small that it can be obtained painlessly.

He published 225 papers and his contributions to technology are described in 78 issued US Patents. He is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society. He is a Guest Professor of the Collège de France and recieved an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden. Other awards include the Spiers Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the Medal of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Tokyo and the Vittorio De Nora Medal of The Electochemical Society. He also received the Grahame Award and the Battery Research Award of The Electrochemical Society, the Chemistry of Materials Award of the American Chemical Society.