Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Millennium Technology Prize Awarded to LED Creator

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the seeing-the-award-by-led-lined-light dept.

mapkinase writes "This year's Millennium Technology Prize was awarded to Prof. Nakamura of Japan, for invention of white, blue and green light emitting diodes." From the article: "His other inventions such as blue LEDs are used in flat-screen displays, while blue lasers are already being exploited in the next generation of DVD player. 'Professor Nakamura's technological innovations in the field of semiconductor materials and devices are groundbreaking,' said Jaakko Ihamuotila, chairman of the Millennium Prize Foundation. The Millennium Technology Prize is the world's largest technology award, equivalent to the Nobel Prizes for science. It recognizes technological developments that have a positive impact on quality of life and sustainable development."

3 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Fields can be considered "Nobel equivalent" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Sorry .. but the Fields is Nobel equivalent. You have to make a real significant and standout contribution to mathematics before you can be awarded it. Do you know anything about mathematics??

    And yes and though not immediately .. the resulting math often drives technology. Would the world have any semblence of engineering or computational capability were it not for mathematics? No way in hell.

  2. Re:Nobel equivalent? I don't think so. by wakaranai · · Score: 4, Informative

    There have been a number of prizes offered, to try to make up for the missing mathematics Nobel... the Abel, Shaw and Crafoord Prizes.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_prize#Lack_of_a _mathematics_prize

    However, they don't appear to have captured the public or media's imagination, compared to the Nobel (or Fields)

  3. A correction by edward.virtually@pob · · Score: 5, Informative

    As this is the second time I've read the false claim that Professor Nakamura invented green leds -- green leds having existed since the 70s -- I looked into it and discovered it's another case of sloppy (read inaccurate) reporting. He invented the GaN-based green led, not green leds in general. Technical reporters need to stop omitting words because they're too ignorant to know they're important. I can only guess how many people are now misinformed as a result of said sloppy reporting. Grumble.