Shuji Nakamura | |
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Shuji Nakamura in 2015
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Native name | 中村修二 |
Born |
Ikata, Ehime, Japan |
22 May 1954
Residence | United States |
Citizenship | Japan (until 2000) United States (since 2000) |
Nationality | American |
Fields | Engineering |
Institutions | University of California, Santa Barbara |
Alma mater | University of Tokushima |
Known for | Blue and white LEDs |
Notable awards |
Millennium Technology Prize (2006) Harvey Prize (2009) Nobel Prize in Physics (2014) National Inventors Hall of Fame (2015) |
Shuji Nakamura (中村 修二 Nakamura Shūji?, born May 22, 1954) is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and is regarded as the inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. Together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, he is one of the three recipients of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".
Nakamura graduated from the University of Tokushima in 1977 with a B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering, and obtained an M.Eng. degree in the same subject two years later, after which he joined the Nichia Corporation, also based in Tokushima. It was while working for Nichia that Nakamura invented the first high brightness gallium nitride (GaN) LED whose brilliant blue light, when partially converted to yellow by a phosphor coating, is the key to white LED lighting, which went into production in 1993.