Even at the age of 84 Nick Holonyak Jr can still be found in his laboratory daily
The 50th anniversary of the birth of the LED is being celebrated at the University of Illinois with participation from the LED inventor himself,Nick Holonyak Jr.
On the 9th of October 1962 Holonyak,who was then a consulting scientist at General Electric,demonstrated the first practical,visible spectrum LED at the companyam advanced semiconductor laboratory in Syracuse,New York.This first III-V alloy PN junction design is the prototype for all high-brightness LEDs made today.
Many of the researchers who studied under Holonyak have subsequently refined the technology,through improvements in crystal manufacturing techniques,to develop bright-light LEDs in every colour,including white.
Even today,at 84,Holonyak can be found in his laboratory daily.He was invited to join the Illinois faculty in 1963 and has been given the esteemed title The John Barden Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Illinois.a??
Holonyak has won mulitple awards including the Japan Prize 1995 and the US National Medal of Science.He is also a member of the National Inventorsa Hall of Fame.
At the event,Holonyak will talk informally about his work,cut a cake adorned with 50 LED candles,as well as answer questions from the public and sign autographs.
You can read more about the 50th anniversary of the LED in the November issue of Lighting.To watch a video of Nick Holonyak discussing the discovery of the LED click on the image below.
Nick Holonyak Jr talks about the invention of the LED