Skip to content
Trackfame
Join
Shuji Nakamura
Science Technology

Shuji Nakamura

Japanese-American engineer who invented the bright blue LED

22 May 1954 United States Verified by our editors
Follow 0 followers Correction Cite
Age
72 yrs
Birthday in 197 days
Works listed
2
Invention, Book
Honours
4
Most recent 2015
Profile views
4
0 followers

Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-American engineer who, while at Nichia Corporation in the early 1990s, developed the first high-brightness blue light-emitting diode. Blue LEDs made white LED lighting possible, and he shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano.

Biography

Background

Nakamura grew up in a fishing village on Shikoku and studied electronic engineering at the University of Tokushima. In 1979 he joined Nichia, a small chemical company.

The blue LED

Red and green LEDs existed, but a bright blue one had defeated large companies. Working largely alone, Nakamura improved methods for growing gallium nitride crystals and in 1993 Nichia announced a bright blue LED. Combined with phosphors it produced white light, leading to energy-saving LED lamps, screens and Blu-ray lasers.

Dispute

Nakamura received a small bonus for the invention and later sued Nichia; a Tokyo court awarded him a large sum in 2004, which was reduced in a settlement. The case changed how Japanese companies reward employee inventors.

California

He became a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1999 and became a US citizen. He shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2015 Draper Prize.

Timeline

  1. 1954

    Born in Ikata, Ehime, Japan

  2. 1979

    Joins Nichia

  3. 1993

    Bright blue LED announced

  4. 1996

    Blue laser diode

  5. 1999

    Joins UC Santa Barbara

  6. 2004

    Wins court case over invention reward

  7. 2006

    Millennium Technology Prize

  8. 2014

    Nobel Prize in Physics

Notable works

  • 1993

    Blue LED Invention

  • 1997

    The Blue Laser Diode Book

Awards and honours

  • Benjamin Franklin Medal

    2002

  • Millennium Technology Prize

    2006

  • Nobel Prize in Physics

    2014

  • Charles Stark Draper Prize

    2015

Did you know?

  1. 1

    Colleagues nicknamed him “Slave Nakamura” over his small invention bonus, he has said.

  2. 2

    LED lighting uses a fraction of the electricity of old bulbs.

  3. 3

    He was given a ¥20,000 bonus for the blue LED.

Connections

Related people

Also born on 22 May

Frequently asked

Who is Shuji Nakamura?

Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-American engineer who, while at Nichia Corporation in the early 1990s, developed the first high-brightness blue light-emitting diode. Blue LEDs made white LED lighting possible, and he shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano.

How old is Shuji Nakamura?

Shuji Nakamura is 72 years old, born on 22 May 1954 in Ikata, Ehime, Japan.

Where is Shuji Nakamura from?

Shuji Nakamura was born in Ikata, Ehime, Japan.

What is Shuji Nakamura known for?

Shuji Nakamura is best known for High-brightness blue LED; white LEDs; blue laser diodes; Nobel Prize in Physics 2014.

What awards has Shuji Nakamura received?

Notable honours include Benjamin Franklin Medal (2002), Millennium Technology Prize (2006), Nobel Prize in Physics (2014), Charles Stark Draper Prize (2015).

References

  1. Shuji Nakamura — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Shuji Nakamura — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Shuji Nakamura — IMDb. IMDb. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Shuji Nakamura — Nobel Prize facts. NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  5. Shuji Nakamura — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  6. Shuji Nakamura (Q730065) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Shuji Nakamura”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Wikipedia
Filed under JapanLEDNobel Prize EngineerInventorProfessor

About this profile

Cite this page

“Shuji Nakamura.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/shuji-nakamura

Discussion 0

Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.

No comments yet — be the first.

More in Science

See all
Margaret Hamilton Science

Margaret Hamilton

MIT engineer who led the software for the Apollo Moon landings and coined “software engineering”

1936 – 2026

Marvin Minsky Science

Marvin Minsky

Co-founder of MIT’s artificial intelligence laboratory and a founding father of AI

1927 – 2016

Nikola Tesla Science

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American inventor of the alternating-current induction motor

1856 – 1943

Yann LeCun Science

Yann LeCun

French-American AI pioneer who invented convolutional neural networks

Born 1959

M. Visvesvaraya Science

M. Visvesvaraya

Engineer and statesman, whose birthday is India’s Engineers’ Day

1860 – 1962

Peter Naur Science

Peter Naur

Danish computer scientist who edited the ALGOL 60 report and refined Backus–Naur form

1928 – 2016