Shuji Nakamura

 

Born -May 22, 1954

Nationality- Japanese- American

Field- Engineering

Current Occupation- Professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Major Achievements

 

• Regarded as the inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology.
• Together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, he was one of the three recipients of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".
• Nakamura is a professor of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and holds over 100 patents. 
•  In 2008, Nakamura, along with fellow UCSB professors Dr. Steven DenBaars and Dr. James Speck, founded Soraa, a developer of solid-state lighting technology built on pure gallium nitride substrates.

Recognitions

·         2001 awarded Asahi Prize from the Japanese Newspaper, Asahi Shimbun

·         2002 awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics from the Franklin Institute.

·         2006 awarded Finland's Millennium Technology Prize for his continuing efforts to make cheaper and more efficient light sources.

·         2007 nominee for the European Inventor Award awarded by the European Patent Office

·         2008 won the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.

·         2008 awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

·         2009 received the Harvey Prize from the Technion in Israel.

·         2012 named Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association (SVIPLA) Inventor of the Year.

·         2014 received the Nobel Prize in Physics together with Prof. Isamu Akasaki and Prof. Hiroshi Amano for inventing blue light-emitting diodes

 

 

Education

Nakamura graduated from the University of Tokushima in 1977 with a B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering, and obtained an M.Eng. degree in the same subject two years later.

Career

 He started his career with Nichia Corporation, also based in Tokushima ( Japan). It was while working for Nichia that Nakamura invented the first high brightness gallium nitride (GaN) LED whose brilliant blue light, when partially converted to yellow by a phosphor coating, is the key to white LED lighting, which went into production in 1993. He left Nichia Corp in 1999 and joined College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background of blue LED Invention

Previously, J. I. Pankove and co-workers at RCA put in considerable effort, but did not manage to make a marketable GaN LED in the 1960s. The principal problem was the difficulty of making strongly p-type GaN. Nakamura drew on the work of another Japanese group led by Professor Isamu Akasaki, who published their method to make strongly p-type GaN by electron-beam irradiation of magnesium-doped GaN. However, this method was not suitable for mass production and its physics was not well understood. Nakamura managed to develop a thermal annealing method which was much more suitable for mass production. In addition, he and his co-workers worked out the physics and pointed out the culprit was hydrogen, which passivated acceptors in GaN.

At the time, many considered creating a GaN LED too difficult to produce, therefore Nakamura was fortunate that the founder of Nichia, Nobuo Ogawa (1912–2002) was initially willing to support his GaN project. However the company eventually ordered him to suspend work on GaN, claiming it was consuming too much time and money. Nakamura continued to develop the blue LED on his own and in 1993 succeeded in making the device.

Dispute with Nichia Corp

Nakamura developed the blue light-emitting diode while employed as an engineer for Nichia. He filed a lawsuit in 2001 seeking monetary compensation and recognition that the patent for the semiconductor device belongs to him.

According to Nakamura, Nichia has filed about 80 patents related the development of the blue LED. He claimed to have developed the blue LED on his own after the company ordered him to suspend work on the time-consuming project. In 1993, he succeeded in making the device, which benefited the company enormously, generating at least 2 billion yen. Nakamura, who left Nichia in 1999, said the firm unfairly denied him profits from his own invention.

The development of the blue LED, which is widely used in electric screens, received worldwide attention because it was vital for developing a laser for high-capacity DVDs.

Although Nakamura originally won an appeal for ¥20 billion (≈US$180 million), Nichia appealed the award and the parties settled in 2005 for ¥840 million (≈US$9 million), at the time the largest bonus ever paid by a Japanese company.

Charles Darwin

 

Charles Robert Darwin

Born	12 February 1809 The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom
Died	19 April 1882 (aged 73) Down House, Luxted Road, Downe, Kent, UK
Residence	England
Citizenship	British
Nationality	British
Fields	Natural history, Geology
Institutions	Tertiary education: University of Edinburgh Medical School (medicine) Christ's College, Cambridge (University of Cambridge) (BA) Professional institution: Geological Society of London
Academic advisors	John Stevens Henslow Adam Sedgwick
Known for	The Voyage of the Beagle On the Origin of Species evolution by natural selection, common descent
Influences	Alexander von Humboldt John Herschel Charles Lyell
Influenced	Joseph Dalton Hooker Thomas Henry Huxley George Romanes Ernst Haeckel Sir John Lubbock
Notable awards	Royal Medal (1853) Wollaston Medal (1859) Copley Medal (1864)
Spouse	Emma Darwin (married 1839)
Children	10 children

Charles Robert Darwin, FRS (/ˈdɑrwɪn/; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. By the 1870s the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Studies at the University of Cambridge (Christ's College) encouraged his passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author.

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural selection. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories. Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.

Darwin became internationally famous, and his pre-eminence as a scientist was honored by burial in Westminster Abbey. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.

Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse
Archimedes Thoughtful by Fetti (1620)
Native name	Ἀρχιμήδης
Born	c. 287 BC Syracuse, Sicily Magna Graecia
Died	c. 212 BC (aged around 75) Syracuse
Residence	Syracuse, Sicily
Fields	Mathematics Physics Engineering Astronomy Invention
Known for	Archimedes' principle Archimedes' screw hydrostatics levers infinitesimals

Stephen Hawking

Born	Stephen William Hawking
	8 January 1942 (age 72)
	Oxford, England
Residence	United Kingdom
Fields	General relativity
	Quantum gravity
Notable awards	Adams Prize (1966)
	FRS (1974)
	Eddington Medal (1975)
	Maxwell Medal and Prize (1976)
	Heine man Prize (1976)
	Hughes Medal (1976)
	Albert Einstein Award (1978)
	CBE (1982)
	RAS Gold Medal (1985)
	Dirac Medal (1987)
	Wolf Prize (1988)
	CH (1989)
	Prince of Asturias Award (1989)
	Andrew Gemant Award (1998)
	Naylor Prize and Lectureship (1999)
	Lilienfeld Prize (1999)
	Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts) (1999)
	Copley Medal (2006)
	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009)
	Fundamental Physics Prize (2012)

An English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. Among his significant scientific works have been a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vocal supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

 Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was theLucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. He is almost entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech-generating device. He married twice and has three children.

Hawking taking a zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet"

 1970 Singularities in gravitational collapse

Physicists working on Einstein's theory of gravity noticed that it allowed for singularities – points where spacetime appeared to be infinitely curved. But it was unclear whether singularities were real or not. Roger Penrose at Birkbeck College in London proved that singularities would indeed form in black holes. Later, Penrose and Hawking applied the same idea to the whole universe and showed that Einstein's theory predicted a singularity in our distant past. It was the big bang.

1971-72 Black hole mechanics

Black holes have their own set of laws that mirror the more familiar laws of thermodynamics. Hawking came up with the second law, which states that the total surface area of a black hole will never get smaller, at least so far as classical (as opposed to quantum) physics is concerned. Also known as the Hawking area theorem, it created a puzzle for physicists. The law implied that black holes were hot, a contradiction of classical physics that said black holes could not radiate heat. In separate work, Hawking worked on the "no hair" theorem of black holes, which states that black holes can be characterized by three numbers – their mass, angular momentum and charge. The hair in question is other information that vanishes when it falls into the black hole.

1974-75 How black holes can vanish

Nothing can escape a black hole, or so physicists once thought. Hawking drew on quantum theory to show that black holes should emit heat and eventually vanish. The process is slow for normal black holes. It would take longer than the age of the universe for a black hole with the same mass as our sun to evaporate. But smaller black holes evaporate faster, and near the end of their lives release heat at a spectacular rate. In the last tenth of a second, a black hole could explode with the energy of a million one megaton hydrogen bombs.

Stephen Hawking being presented by his daughter Lucy Hawking at the lecture he gave for NASA's 50th anniversary

1982 How galaxies might arise

A popular theory in cosmology holds that the fledgling universe went through a period of rapid inflation soon after the big bang. Hawking was one of the first to show how quantum fluctuations – minuscule variations in the distribution of matter – during inflation might give rise to the spread of galaxies in the universe. What started as a tiny difference grew into the cosmic structure we see, as gravity made matter clump together. Recent maps of the heavens that pick up the faint afterglow of the big bang reveal the kinds of variations Hawking worked with.

1983 Wave function of the universe

Hawking has spent much of his time trying to develop a quantum theory of gravity. He started out applying his idea of Euclidean quantum gravity to black holes, but in 1983 teamed up with Jim Hartle at Chicago University. Together they proposed a "wave function of the universe" that, in theory, could be used to calculate the properties of the universe we see around us.

Videos 

Books

 .......................created by Gitanjalee Bhuse-Ghodake