Nick Holonyak Jr., Pioneer of LED Lighting, Is Dead at 93 (nytimes.com) 13
Nick Holonyak Jr., an electrical engineer who became known as the godfather of the LED lighting that illuminates flat-screen TVs and laptop computers, and who also developed lasers that enabled DVD and CD players, bar code scanners and medical diagnostic devices, died on Sept. 18 in Urbana, Ill. He was 93. From a report: His death, at a nursing home, was announced by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, his alma mater, where he taught from 1963 until he retired in 2013. The day after he died, the campus's State Farm Center arena was bathed in red to commemorate his invention of the first visible light-emitting diode in 1962.
Professor Holonyak (pronounced huh-LON-yak) was among the first scientists to predict that incandescent bulbs, which heat metal filaments to create energy, and fluorescent lamps, which use ionized gas, would eventually be replaced by LEDs, semiconductor chips the size of a grain of sand that emit photons of light when electric current is applied to them. Professor Holonyak described the LED as the "ultimate lamp" because, he said, "the current itself is the light." LEDs radiate less heat than incandescent bulbs, consume less energy and last longer. They are also environmentally safer than fluorescent lamps, which contain mercury. The Department of Energy has estimated that by the end of the decade, LEDs will account for more than 80 percent of all lighting purchases and will pare Americans' electric bills by some $30 billion annually. From 2014: No Nobel For Nick Holonyak Jr, Father of the LED.
Professor Holonyak (pronounced huh-LON-yak) was among the first scientists to predict that incandescent bulbs, which heat metal filaments to create energy, and fluorescent lamps, which use ionized gas, would eventually be replaced by LEDs, semiconductor chips the size of a grain of sand that emit photons of light when electric current is applied to them. Professor Holonyak described the LED as the "ultimate lamp" because, he said, "the current itself is the light." LEDs radiate less heat than incandescent bulbs, consume less energy and last longer. They are also environmentally safer than fluorescent lamps, which contain mercury. The Department of Energy has estimated that by the end of the decade, LEDs will account for more than 80 percent of all lighting purchases and will pare Americans' electric bills by some $30 billion annually. From 2014: No Nobel For Nick Holonyak Jr, Father of the LED.
Engineers rule (Score:1)
*cringe* (Score:2, Insightful)
illuminates flat-screen TVs
SMH. Last-generation CRTs and plasma displays would like to have a few words with you.
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Re: (Score:2)
Re: Engineers rule (Score:1)
Coolest Thing Ever (Score:4, Insightful)
If you were a young geek in the 70's, red leds on a piece of electronic gear was the coolest thing in the world. RIP.
Re: (Score:3)
It took so long to get a blue LED.
Invention of blue LEDs wins Nobel Prize [bbc.com] yet Nick Holonyak Jr., the original LED inventor, got nothing.
Apparently red is not worthy but blue is. Go figure.
Re: Coolest Thing Ever (Score:2)
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Yup. In 1974 I bought a clock out of an electronics magazine.
It was a red LED digital clock. I was fascinated by the display,
and it was the 1st piece of digital electronics I ever owned.
I still have it.
Re: (Score:2)
If you were a young geek in the 70's, red leds on a piece of electronic gear was the coolest thing in the world. RIP.
The coolest thing in the world was red LED watches.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, didn't quite realize at the time that packages of LEDs I was buying from Radio Shack as a teenager in the mid 1970s were only about a decade old as workable technology. So fairly cutting edge. They were fun to play with by hooking them up to various IC chips. The things you take for granted as a teenager.
new energy source (Score:2)
""which heat metal filaments to create energy"
I knew the windmills and solar panels were go to be replaced someday by something more efficient.
Idiocy (Score:2)
He predicted LED's would be used for lighting? So what? I did, too. The question is what actual SCIENCE or ENGINEERING did he do.
Urbaba, Illinois (Score:2)