Shuji Nakamura

Materials

Shuji Nakamura

Contacts

Materials Department
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

tel: 805-893-5552
shuji@engineering.ucsb.edu

Research Description

Shuji Nakamura's research includes MOCVD, UVPE, and growth and device fabrication of light-emitters based on the wide-bandgap semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN). Professor Nakamura’s work has launched a new sector in light-producing semiconductor research, made possible the widescale industrial production of efficient, energy-saving LED and created the conditions for applications that improve the quality of human life. His blue lasers have enabled the next generation of optical storage, and his LED work has enabled highly efficient lighting systems suitable for significantly reducing consumption of the world’s resources. Shuji Nakamura’s invention of ultraviolet LEDs also improves the sterilisation of drinking water with the use of ultraviolet LEDs making the water purification process both cheaper and more efficient.

Biography

Nakamura graduated from the University of Tokushima in 1977 with a degree in electronic engineering, and obtained a master's degree in the same subject two years later, after which he joined the Nichia Corporation, also based in Tokushima. He was awarded a Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Tokushima in 1994. He left Nichia Corporation in 1999 and took a position as a professor of engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara


Awards/Honors

  • Finland's Millennium Technology Prize, 2006