PHYSICIST

Isamu Akasaki

1929 - 2021

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Isamu Akasaki (赤﨑 勇, Akasaki Isamu; January 30, 1929 – April 1, 2021) was a Japanese engineer and physicist, 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, 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". In 2021, Akasaki, along with Shuji Nakamura, Nick Holonyak, M. George Craford and Russell D. Dupuis were awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering "for the creation and development of LED lighting, which forms the basis of all solid state lighting technology". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Isamu Akasaki is the 182nd most popular physicist (down from 121st in 2019), the 68th most popular biography from Japan (down from 56th in 2019) and the 2nd most popular Japanese Physicist.

Amu Akasaki is most famous for being the inventor of the blue LED.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Isamu Akasaki ranks 182 out of 851. Before him are Julius von Mayer, Herbert Kroemer, Martin Lewis Perl, Richard E. Taylor, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, and Burton Richter. After him are Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Jerome Isaac Friedman, Hans Geiger, Georg von Békésy, and Douglas Osheroff.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1929, Isamu Akasaki ranks 34. Before him are Sándor Kocsis, James Hong, Babrak Karmal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Djalma Santos, and Richard E. Taylor. After him are Hafizullah Amin, Oriana Fallaci, Werner Arber, Fernanda Montenegro, Murray Gell-Mann, and John Turner. Among people deceased in 2021, Isamu Akasaki ranks 22. Before him are F. W. de Klerk, Paul J. Crutzen, Desmond Tutu, Raffaella Carrà, Martinus J. G. Veltman, and Carlos Menem. After him are Captain Tom, Richard R. Ernst, Jacques Rogge, Robert Downey Sr., Marie, Princess of Liechtenstein, and Bell hooks.

Others Born in 1929

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Isamu Akasaki ranks 68 out of 6,245. Before him are Paulo Miki (1564), Mako (1933), Koxinga (1624), Dōgen (1200), Yoshihide Suga (1948), and Antonio Inoki (1943). After him are Shin'ichirō Tomonaga (1906), Tadao Ando (1941), Soichiro Honda (1906), Chūichi Nagumo (1887), Kenzō Tange (1913), and Nichiren (1222).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Japan

Among physicists born in Japan, Isamu Akasaki ranks 2. Before him are Hideki Yukawa (1907). After him are Shin'ichirō Tomonaga (1906), Yoichiro Nambu (1921), Makoto Kobayashi (1944), Leo Esaki (1925), Toshihide Maskawa (1940), Masatoshi Koshiba (1926), Syukuro Manabe (1931), Shuji Nakamura (1954), Hiroshi Amano (1960), and Takaaki Kajita (1959).

Japanese born Physicists

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