Shuji Nakamura
Name in native script: 中村修二
active c. 1954, Ehime, Japan
Japanese-American engineer-physicist who brought blue LEDs and laser diodes from the lab to market.
At the small chemical company Nichia, Nakamura developed 'two-flow' MOCVD and in 1993–94 produced InGaN blue LEDs of unprecedented brightness, then violet-blue laser diodes (1996) enabling Blu-ray. After a famous patent-ownership lawsuit, he moved to UC Santa Barbara in 2000.
Nobel-winning work
Nakamura proved InGaN alloys emit efficiently in the blue-violet and built double-heterostructure LEDs of commercial brightness — where the world's major labs had failed. His GaN laser diodes multiplied optical-disc density (Blu-ray). Together with white LEDs, this work cut global lighting energy dramatically.
Workplaces: Nichia Corporation, University of California, Santa Barbara
Japan, United States