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.
Career and research
Nakamura graduated from the University of Tokushima in 1977 with a B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering, and obtained an M.Eng. in the same subject in 1979, after which he joined the Nichia Corporation, also based in Tokushima. It was while working for Nichia that Nakamura invented the method for producing the first commercial 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.
Previously, J. I. Pankove and co-workers at RCA 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.
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 (<US$20 million) as his fair share for the invention, and the district court awarded him ten times the amount, ¥20 billion (<US$200 million). However, Nichia appealed the award and the parties settled in 2005 for ¥840 million (≈US$8.1 million, less than 5% of the award amount), which was still the largest payment ever paid by a Japanese company to an employee for an invention, an amount only enough to cover legal expenses incurred by Nakamura. In line with the lawsuit, Nakamura has repeatedly criticized Japanese companies for not giving their researchers the salaries and recognition they deserve.
Nakamura has also worked on green LEDs and is responsible for creating the white LED and blue laser diodes used in Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs.
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 a commercial fusion company, Blue Laser Fusion, 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 Motor and other investors and managed by the SPARX Group.
Recognition
Awards
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Organization
! Award
! Citation
!
|-
| 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
| 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."
|
|-
| 2022
| American Academy of Achievement
| Golden Plate Award
|
|
|}
Memberships
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Organization
! Type
!
|-
| 2003
| National Academy of Engineering
| Member
|
|-
| 2019
| Royal Academy of Engineering
| International Fellow
|
|}
Honorary degrees
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! University
! Degree
!
|-
| 2008
| HKUST
| Doctor of Engineering
|
|-
| 2017
| University of Warsaw
|
|
|-
| 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
|
|-
| 2026
| University of Oxford
|
|
|}
Orders
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Head of state
! Order
!
|-
| 2014
| Akihito
| Order of Culture
|
|}
See also
- List of Japanese Nobel laureates and nominees
Notes
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
Further reading
- Shuji Nakamura, Gerhard Fasol, Stephen J. Pearton, The Blue Laser Diode : The Complete Story, Springer; 2nd edition, October 2, 2000, ()
External links
- Professor Nakamura's home page at UCSB
- The Solid State Lighting and Energy Center at UCSB
- Shuji Nakamura Wins $188.7 Million Settlement from Former Employer Nichia for Blue Spectrum Breakthrough Technology
- New York Times article on Nakamura's settlement with Nichia
- — Nitride semiconductor light-emitting device
- Shuji Nakamura wins the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize
- Nichia's Shuji Nakamura: Dream of the Blue Laser Diode
- 2008 Prince of Asturias Award For Technical and Scientific Research
- Harvey Prize
- Shuji Nakamura SPIE Photonics West plenary presentation: Future and present technologies of solid state lighting