STOCKHOLM — An invention that promises to revolutionize the way the world lights its homes and offices — and already helps create the glowing screens of mobile phones, computers and televisions— earned a Nobel Prize on Tuesday for two Japanese scientists and a Japanese-born American.
By inventing a new kind of light-emitting diode, Japanese researchers Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano and naturalized U.S. citizen Shuji Nakamura overcame a crucial roadblock for creating white light far more efficiently than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. Now LEDs are pervasive, and experts say their use will only grow.
Their work, done in the early 1990s, led to a fundamental transformation of technology for illumination, the committee said.
Nakamura, 60, is a professor at University of California at Santa Barbara. Asked earlier if he realized the importance of his research early on, he said, “Nobody can make a cellphone without … my invention.” The Associated Press
