LED pioneer wins $1.25 million prize

LONDON — A technology foundation in Finland has decided to give a 1 million euro prize (about $1.25 million) to Professor Shuji Nakamura, of the University of California Santa Barbara, for his work on gallium-nitride light emitting diodes and lasers.

The 1 million euro Millennium Technology Prize was specifically for Nakamura's work developing blue, green and white light emitting diodes and a blue laser. The prize is awarded by Finland's Millennium Prize Foundation every two years for technologies that improve the quality of human life.

Nakamura's innovation has allowed the production of energy-saving LED lights that can allow energy saving compared with filament and incandescent lights and the LEDs are long lived. LED-based lighting is also well suited to operation wit solar-power systems and therefore suitable for use in remote areas of developing countries. In addition Nakamura's LEDs can operate in the ultraviolet where they can help make water purification cheaper and more efficient.

Nakamura's breakthrough year was 1993, when he stunned the optoelectronic community with the announcement of very bright blue GaN-based LEDs.

Earlier this year Nichia Corp., a supplier of such gallium-nitride devices as blue LEDs and blue lasers, waived its worldwide rights under the so-called 404 patent, after a protracted legal battle with Nakamura, who was formerly Nichia engineer. Once deemed essential for blue-LED production, Japan's patent No. 2628404 was at the center of a high-profile dispute between Nichia and Nakamura. Nakamura left Nichia in 1999.

"Shuji Nakamura is a splendid example of perseverance and dedicated research work, and of making a major breakthrough. He has worked with great determination for decades, and even severe setbacks have not prevented him from achieving something that other workers in the field regarded as almost impossible: using a reactor system of his own design to develop a solid material, in this case gallium nitride, into a powerful light source producing blue, green and white light, and also creating a blue laser," said Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the International Selection committee of the Millennium Prize Foundation in a statement on the foundation's Website.

"The lighting applications now made possible by his achievement can be compared with Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent lamp. In the course of time, energy-efficient light sources based on Shuji Nakamura's innovation will undoubtedly become predominant."

The Millennium Prize Foundation was formed in 2002 and the first prize was awarded in 2004 to Tim Berners-Lee for his work on the invention of the Internet. The Millennium Prize Foundation is an independent fund supported by the Finnish government and several Finnish companies and organizations, including Nokia.