0310ctt Blue LED-lo res

[Image above] Credit: Gussisaurio; Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0

Try as I might, I won’t ever win a Nobel.

I have total confidence, however, that many of you out there reading this post have the potential to bring home the Holy Grail of scientific and cultural achievements with the work you’ve done, are doing, and will do. It’s a privilege to now know, write about, and work with you in promoting the ceramic and glass materials that are daily changing our world in expected (and unexpected) ways.

So, it may come as particular interest to our community to learn that Shuji Nakamura—who along with fellow winners Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”—has ties (less than six degrees) to ACerS. 

Nakamura, who invented the blue nitride LED, was the plenary speaker at the 2007 International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and his work has been featured in the ACerS Bulletin several times over the past seven years. (Sidenote: With all that brain power in one building, ICACC is obviously the place to be. Register for 2015’s meeting, taking place January 25–30 in Daytona Beach, Fla., before December 23 and save $150).

For those of you who require photographic proof, see below. That’s Nakamura with ACerS Board member Edgar Lara-Curzio (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). 

nakamura

2007 ICACC plenary speaker Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, and Edgar Lara-Curzio, distinguished research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: ACerS

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