Scientist

Shuji Nakamura

1954 – present · Optoelectronics, Semiconductor physics, Materials science
Japanese and American engineer, inventor of the high-brightness blue light-emitting diode, which revolutionized lighting technologies and made possible modern energy-efficient displays and lasers. His story is an example of scientific audacity and perseverance: he developed the blue LED despite skepticism from his superiors, working alone with homemade equipment.

Biography

Shuji Nakamura was born in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokushima with a degree in electronic engineering. In 1979, he began working at the small company Nichia Chemical Industries, where he worked on semiconductors. In the 1990s, with no budget and no support, he single-handedly created the technology for growing gallium nitride (GaN) crystals for blue LEDs. He later moved to the United States and became a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2014, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano for the invention of efficient blue LEDs.

Key discoveries

💡 Nakamura sued his former company Nichia for compensation, eventually receiving about $$8 million – far less than the company earned from his invention. He calls himself a 'weird inventor' and continues to work on creating even more efficient lasers.
"He said he was just doing his job, not thinking about the Nobel Prize, and his goal was to do what no one had done."
Concepts
electromagnetismquantum opticsspectroscopy
Laws
invention of the blue LED
Scientists
Robert HookeJohann Jakob BalmerJocelyn Bell BurnellArno PenziasCharles TownesJames Clerk MaxwellAlain AspectErwin Schrödinger

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