Nobel Prize in Physics
An American and two Japanese scientists won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source, leading to the creation of modern LED light bulbs. Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Japanese-born US citizen Shuji Nakamura won the prize for developing the blue light-emitting diode (LED) -- the missing piece that now allows manufacturers to produce white-light lamps.
Isamu Akasaki
Born in 1929 Japan's Chiran, Isamu Akasaki did Ph.D (Doctorate of Engineering) from School of Engineering, Nagoya University in Japan in 1964.
He had served as a Professor of School of Engineering at Nagoya University in 1981. In 1992, he took retirement from Nagoya University and joined Meijo University as a Professor. In 2004, he joined the Nagoya University as a distinguished professor.
He has contributed in the discovery of nitride semiconductor p conduction and p-n junction blue luminescent device and achieved a high-quality nanostructure in nitride semiconductors and verifying the quantum effects.
Hiroshi Amano
Amano was born in 1960 in Hamamatsu, Japan. He did Ph.D (Doctor of Engineering) in 1989 from Nagoya University in Japan.
In 1988, he had joined the Nagoya University as a Research Associate and obtained the position of the Professor at the University in 2010.
He has made his contribution in various fields like Light emitting diode, laser diode, high power and high frequency transistor, solar cells, nano structure, crystal growth of compound semiconductors and semiconductor device physics.
Shuji Nakamura
Shuji was born in 1954 at Japan's Ikata. Shuji, now an American citizen, graduated from the University of Tokushima in 1977 with a degree in electronic engineering. He was awarded a Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Tokushima in 1994.
He is a Japanese American professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Nakamura has worked on green LEDs and is responsible for creating the white LED and blue laser diodes used in Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs.
