Shuji Nakamura collection, 1971-2022

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Summary

Creators:
Johnstone, Bob
Abstract:
Materials produced and compiled by Bob Johnstone, an author and journalist, for his writings on Shuji Nakamura and the history of L.E.D.s.
Extent:
1.67 Linear Feet (1 carton, 1 document box)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Shuji Nakamura Collection. UArch FacP 79. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains materials produced and utilized by Bob Johnstone in his writings on Shuji Nakamura and the history of L.E.D.s.

Biographical / historical:

Shūji Nakamura, 中村 修二, (May 22, 1954-) is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, widley regarded as the inventor of the blue LED. Born in Ikata, Ehime, Japan, Nakamura studied electrical engineering at the University of Tokushima, earning both a Bachelor and Master of Engineering in 1977 and 1979 respectively. After graduating, he stayed in Tokushima and joined Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd. While at Nichia, Nakamura developed the first commercial high brightness gallium nitride (GaN) LED, which would serve as the basis for his later Noble Prize winning work.

Outside of Nichia, he continued his work on the blue LED, and in 1994 he received his doctorate from the University of Tokushima. With the use of his work on blue, green, and violet LED, Nichia produced energy saving LEDs and blue-ray DVDs that previously would not have been feasible.

In 1999, Nakamura left Nichia to become a professor of Materials and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering of University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He continues to research and teach at UCSB today within the Electronic and Photonic Materials group.

Together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, he is 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".

Bob Johnstone is a freelance journalist who has written about science and technology for over fifteen years. Based in Tokyo from 1980 to 1995, he served as the Japan correspondent for New Scientist, technology correspondent for Far Eastern Economic Review, and was a contributing editor and writer for Wired. Johnstone was also a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1991, and was the recipient of the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership and the Social Science Research Council's Abe Fellowship for Journalists in 1995 for his research, "Enabling Components: Japanese Entrepreneurs and the Origins of Multimedia."

Acquisition information:
Gift of Bob Johnstone, 2022.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged by book title into three series:

  • Series 1: We Were Burning
  • Series 2: Brilliant!
  • Series 3: L.E.D.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and may be retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.

All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@library.ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assignees for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Shuji Nakamura Collection. UArch FacP 79. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
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