Shuji Nakamura wins 2015 Global Energy Prize
In recognition for his work on LEDs, Shuji Nakamura has been chosen as a 2015 Global Energy Prize Laureate. The Russian award 'honours outstanding achievements in energy research and technology from around the world that are helping address the world's various and pressing energy challenges.'
"I am so pleased that the Global Energy Prize committee has recognised my breakthrough work on InGaN LEDs, which has led to energy-efficient white LED lighting," said Nakamura, who was one of three 2014 Nobel Prize winners in physics for the invention of the bright blue LED.
Now a professor of materials and of electrical and computer engineering at University of California - Santa Barbara, US, Nakamura is also the co-director of the campus's Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC), where his research focuses on growth and device fabrication of light-emitters based on GaN.
"The Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Centre is so pleased that LED lighting is saving the world billions in energy costs and with further potential to bring cost-effective lighting to the developing world," said Steve DenBaars, professor of materials and SSLEEC co-director.
This award is the latest in a stream of honours for Nakamura, including the Nishina Memorial Award (1996), the Materials Research Society Medal (1997), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Jack A. Morton Award, the British Rank Prize (1998), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2002), the Millennium Technology Prize (2006), the Czochralski Award (2007), the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical Scientific Research (2008), The Harvey Award (2009), the Technology and the Engineering Emmy Award (2011), the LED Pioneer Award (2012), the Nobel Prize in Physics (2014), Japan's Order of Culture Medal (2014) and the Charles Stark Draper Prize (2015).
Nakamura joins 31 Energy Prize laureates from ten countries. Winners have included scientists such as Arthur Rosenfeld (USA), awarded for his pioneering work in energy-efficient buildings; Akira Yoshino (Japan), recognised for the invention of lithium ion batteries; and Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfusson (Iceland); honoured for developing hydrogen into a viable alternative power source in Iceland. Nakamura will receive his award at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 19, 2015.
