Isamu Akasaki (赤﨑 勇 Akasaki Isamu?) - Nobel Prize laureate

Isamu Akasaki (赤﨑 勇 Akasaki Isamu?, born January 30, 1929) is a Japanese scientist, specializing in the field of semiconductor technology and Nobel Prize laureate, best known for inventing the bright gallium nitride (GaN) p-n junction blue LED in 1989 and subsequently the high-brightness GaN blue LED as well.

For this and other achievements Isamu Akasaki was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology in 2009 and the IEEE Edison Medal in 2011. He was also awarded the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics, together with Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura,"for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".Born in Kagoshima Prefecture, Akasaki graduated from Kyoto University in 1952, and obtained a Dr.Eng. degree in Electronics from Nagoya University in 1964. He started working on GaN-based blue LEDs in the late 1960s. Step by step, he improved the quality of GaN crystals and device structures[9] at Matsushita Research Institute Tokyo, Inc.(MRIT), where he decided to adopt metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) as the preferred growth method for GaN.

In 1981 he started afresh the growth of GaN by MOVPE at Nagoya University, and in 1985 he and his group succeeded in growing high-quality GaN on sapphire substrate by pioneering the low-temperature (LT) buffer layer technology.

This high-quality GaN enabled them to discover p-type GaN by doping with magnesium (Mg) and subsequent activation by electron irradiation (1989), to produce the first GaN p-n junction blue/UV LED (1989), and to achieve conductivity control of n-type GaN (1990) and related alloys (1991) by doping with silicon (Si), enabling the use of hetero structures and multiple quantum wells in the design and structure of more efficient p-n junction light emitting structures.

They achieved stimulated emission from the GaN firstly at room temperature in 1990,and developed in 1995 the stimulated emission at 388 nm with pulsed current injection from high-quality AlGaN/GaN/GaInN quantum well device.[15] They verified quantum size effect (1991) and quantum confined Stark effect (1997) in nitride system, and in 2000 showed theoretically the orientation dependence of piezoelectric field and the existence of non-/semi-polar GaN crystals,which have triggered today’s world-wide efforts to grow those crystals for application to more efficient light emitters.Professor Akasaki’s patents were produced from these inventions, and the patents have been rewarded as royalties. Nagoya University Akasaki Institute opened on October 20, 2006. The cost of construction of the institute was covered with the patent royalty income to the university, which was also used for a wide range of activities in Nagoya University. The institute consists of an LED gallery to display the history of blue LED research/developments and applications, an office for research collaboration, laboratories for innovative research, and Professor Akasaki's office on the top sixth floor. The institute is situated in the center of the collaboration research zone in Nagoya University Higashiyama campus.Scientific and academic

1989 Japanese Association for Crystal Growth (JACG) Award

1991 Chu-Nichi Culture Prize

1994 Technological Contribution Award, Japanese Association for Crystal Growth in commemoration of its 20th anniversary

1995 Heinrich Welker Gold Medal, the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors

1996 Engineering Achievement Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers / Lasers Electro-Optics Society

1998 Inoue Harushige Award, Japan Science and Technology Agency

1998 C&C Prize, the Nippon Electric Company Corporation

1998 Laudise Prize, the International Organization for Crystal Growth

1998 Jack A. Morton Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

1998 Rank Prize, the Rank Prize Foundation

1999 Fellow, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

1999 Gordon E. Moore Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Science and Technology, the Electrochemical Society

1999 Honoris Causa Doctorate, the University of Montpellier II

1999 Toray Science and Technology Prize, Toray Science Foundation

2001 Asahi Prize, the Asahi Shinbun Cultural Foundation

2001 Honoris Causa Doctorate, Linkoping University

2002 Outstanding Achievement Award, the Japan Society of Applied Physics

2002 Fujihara Prize, the Fujihara Foundation of Science

2002 Takeda Award, the Takeda Foundation

2003 President's Award, the Science Council of Japan (SCJ)

2003 Solid State Devices & Materials (SSDM) Award

2004 Tokai TV Culture Prize

2004 University Professor, Nagoya University

2006 John Bardeen Award, the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

2006 Outstanding Achievement Award, the Japanese Association for Crystal Growth

2007 Honorable Lifetime Achievement Award, the 162nd Research Committee on Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Photonic and Electronic Devices, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)

2008 Foreign Associate, the US National Academy of Engineering[

2009 Kyoto Prize Advanced Technology, the Inamori Foundation

2010 Lifetime Professor, Meijo University

2011 Edison Medal, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

2011 Special Award for Intellectual Property Activities, the Japan Science and Technology Agency

2011 Minami-Nippon Culture Prize-Honorable Prize

2014 Nobel Prize in Physics together with prof. Hiroshi Amano and prof. Shuji Nakamura

2015 Charles Stark Draper Prize

National[edit]

1997 Medal with Purple Ribbon, the Japanese Government

2002 Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, the Japanese Government

2004 Person of Cultural Merit, the Japanese Government

2011 Order of Culture, the Japanese Emperor