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No Nobel For Nick Holonyak Jr, Father of the LED

Posted by timothy on from the only-the-blue-baby-gets-the-prize dept.

szotz writes Nick Holonyak Jr. doesn't want to go gently into that good night. Widely regarded as the father of the LED (for his work on early visible-light devices), he's been making strongly-worded comments about being passed over for the Nobel Prize. His wife said he'd given up on getting it. But, he says, this year's physics award, to inventors of the blue LED, was just plain 'insulting'. The history the LED goes beyond and back further than Holonyak (all the way to the beginning of the 20th century), but a number of his colleagues are disappointed and/or surprised by the snub.

5 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Nobel Prize Committee blew it by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes

  2. Re:The Nobel Prize Committee blew it by drainbramage · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone but Holonyak.

    --
    No brain, no pain.
  3. That's nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Nobel peace prize winner of 2009 just bombed his 7th Muslim country.

  4. Re:The Nobel Prize Committee blew it by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to the reward committee, Obama's achievement was not being Bush.

    Although in retrospect, they probably should have waited a bit to make that determination.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  5. Re:Not the first time: Cabibbo by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nobel prize for the LHC. Every participant gets $3.50, a tuxedo t-shirt, a certificate suitable for framing (but no frame) and coupons to see the Norwegian national orchestra, half price.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'