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Shuji Nakamura (; born May 22, 1954) is a Japanese–American electronics engineer and co-inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. For this achievement, Nakamura, together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.
Nakamura specializes in the field of semiconductor technology. He is Professor of Materials and of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) since 1999.
Previously, J. I. Pankove and co-workers at RCA Corporation put in considerable effort but did not make a marketable GaN LED in the 1960s. The principal problem was the difficulty of making strongly p-type GaN. Nakamura drew on the work of another Japanese group led by Professor Isamu Akasaki, who published their method to make strongly p-type GaN by electron-beam irradiation of magnesium-doped GaN; however, this method was not suitable for mass production. Nakamura developed a thermal annealing method much more suitable for mass production. In addition, he and his co-workers worked out the physics and pointed out the culprit was hydrogen, which passivated acceptors in GaN.
At the time, many considered creating a GaN LED too difficult to produce; therefore, Nakamura was fortunate that the founder of Nichia, (1912–2002), was willing to support and fund his GaN project. However, the senior Ogawa ceded the presidency to his son-in-law Eiji Ogawa (in 1989). The company under Eiji's direction ordered him to suspend work on GaN, claiming it was consuming too much time and money. Nakamura continued to develop the blue LED on his own and in 1993 succeeded in making the device.
Despite these circumstances, once Nakamura succeeded in creating a commercially viable prototype, 3 orders of magnitude (1000 times) brighter than previously successful blue LEDs, Nichia pursued developing the marketable product. The company's gross receipt surged from just over ¥20 billion (≈US$200 million) in 1993 to ¥80 billion (≈US$800 million) by 2001, 60 percent of which was accounted for by sales of blue LED products. The company's workforce doubled between 1994 and 1999 from 640 to 1300 employees.
In 1994, Nakamura was conferred a D.Eng. degree by the University of Tokushima, earned through a doctoral thesis submitted by publication. Shuji Nakamura biographical - website of the Nobel Prize
Nakamura left Nichia Corporation in 1999 to join the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara at the personal invitation of the university's chancellor, Henry T. Yang. Yang flew three times from California to Japan to recruit Nakamura, with promises to build new research facilities and having a Japanese-speaking research staff team already assembled for him.
In 2001, Nakamura sued his former employer Nichia over his bonus for the discovery as a part of a series of lawsuits between Nichia and Nakamura with Nichia's US competitor Cree Inc.; they agreed in 2000 to jointly sue Nichia at the expense of Cree and Nakamura received stock options from Cree. Nakamura claimed that he received only (≈) for his discovery of "404 patent," though Nichia's president Eiji Ogawa's side of the story was that he was shocked beyond belief that the court would award Nakamura ¥20 billion, and downplaying the significance of the "404 patent," opined that the company had adequately compensated him for the innovation through promotions and bonuses amounting to ¥62 million over 11 years and annual salary which was raised to ¥20 million by the time Nakamura quit Nichia.
Nakamura sued for ¥2 billion (
Nakamura has also worked on green LEDs and is responsible for creating the white LED and Blue laser used in and .
Nakamura is a professor of Materials at the UCSB. In 2008, Nakamura, along with fellow UCSB professors Dr. Steven P. DenBaars and Dr. James Speck, founded Soraa, a developer of solid-state lighting technology built on pure gallium nitride substrates. Nakamura holds 208 US utility patents as of 5 May 2020.
In November 2022, Nakamura co-founded Blue Laser Fusion, a commercial fusion company, with Hiroaki Ohta, a former president of Tokyo-based drone maker ACSL. In July 2023, Blue Laser Fusion raised $25 million from venture capital firm JAFCO Group and the Mirai Creation Fund, which is backed by Toyota and other investors and managed by the SPARX Group.
Personal life
Nakamura is married to Yuki Nakamura.
Recognition
Awards
1998 IEEE IEEE Jack A. Morton Award "For contributions in the field of group-III nitride materials and devices." 1998 Rank Foundation Rank Prize for Optoelectronics "For contributions to the invention of nitride based blue and green semiconductor diode lasers." 2000 The Asahi Shimbun Asahi Prize "For their research and development of a blue light emitting device." 2001 Optical Society of America Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award "For original demonstration and commercialization of GaN-based semiconductor lasers and LEDs." 2004 Society for Information Display Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize 2006 Technology Academy Finland Millennium Technology Prize 2008 Prince of Asturias Foundation Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2009 Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Harvey Prize "In recognition of his seminal contribution to nitride containing white light LEDs which revolutionize energy efficient lighting system." 2014 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Prize in Physics "For the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." 2015 National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize "For the invention, development, and commercialization of materials and processes for light-emitting diodes (LEDs)." 2015 Global Energy Association Global Energy Prize "For the invention, commercialization and development of energy-efficient white LED lighting technology." 2015 Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award "For lighting our world in a groundbreaking and sustainable way." 2016 Asian Scientist Asian Scientist 100 2017 IET Mountbatten Medal 2021 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering "For the creation and development of LED lighting, which forms the basis of all solid state lighting technology."
Memberships
2003 National Academy of Engineering Member 2019 Royal Academy of Engineering International Fellow
Honorary degrees
2008 HKUST Doctor of Engineering 2017 University of Warsaw Doctor honoris causa 2018 Queen's University Belfast Doctor of Science 2018 University of Massachusetts Lowell Doctor of Humane Letters 2020 University of Macau Doctor of Science 2025 McGill University Doctor of Science
Orders
2014 Akihito Order of Culture
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
Categories: 1954 Births, Living People, 20th-century American Engineers, 20th-century American Inventors, 21st-century American Engineers, 21st-century American Inventors, American Electronics Engineers, American Nobel Laureates, Asia Game Changer Award Winners, Recipients Of The Nishina Memorial Prize, Draper Prize Winners, Recipients Of The Order Of Culture, Japanese Academics, Japanese Electronics Engineers, Japanese Emigrants To The United States, Japanese Inventors, Japanese Nobel Laureates, Light-emitting Diode Pioneers, Members Of The United States National Academy Of Engineering, People From Ehime Prefecture, Tokushima University Alumni, University Of California, Santa Barbara Faculty, American Academics Of Japanese Descent, American Scientists Of Asian Descent, Benjamin Franklin Medal Laureates, Harvey Prize Winners
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