Isamu Akasaki is a well-known Japanese material scientist, famous for inventing the bright gallium nitride p-n junction blue LED in 1989. In 2009, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology. In 2011, Akasaki won IEEE Edison Medal and shared the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics with Shuji Nakamura and Hiroshi Amano.

Currently ninty years old, Akasaki is married to wife, Ryoko. Furthermore, his net worth in 2019 is reported $1.3 million. 

Isamu Akasaki Net Worth

Akasaki has an estimated net worth around $1.3 million in 2019. His annual salary is yet to be revealed. 

Isamu Akasaki Personal Life

Isamu Akasaki, 90, is a married man. He tied the knot with a woman named Ryoko. However, there is no information about their children. 


CAPTION: Isamu Akasaki
SOURCE: kyoto-u.ac.jp

Besides, there is no information about his private life. 

Isamu Akasaki Bio, Early Life, and Education

Isamu was born on 30 January 1929 in Chiran, Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. He attended Kyoto University and graduated from there in 1952. He also studied at Nagoya University and graduated in 1964 with a Dr. Eng. degree in Electronics.

In the late 1960s, he worked on GaN-based blue LEDs at Matsushita Research Institute Tokyo, Inc. and improved his quality of Gan crystals and device structures. He there decided to adopt metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy.

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He started the growth of GaN by MOVPE at Nagoya University in 1981. His group succeeded in 1985, growing high-quality Gan on sapphire by pioneering the low-temperature buffer layer technology.

They discovered p-type Gan by dropping high-quality GaN with magnesium and eventually activation by electron irradiation for producing GaN p-n junction blue/UV LED and also achieved conductivity control of n-type GaN and alloys dropping with silicon authorizing the use of heterostructures and quantum in designs and the structures of the efficient p-n junction which emits light.

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In 1990, Akasaki and his team gained stimulated emission from GaN at room temperature. In 1991, they verified the quantum size effect and also quantum confined Stark effect in the nitride system.

They theoretically showed the orientation dependence of the piezoelectric field in 2000 and also showed the existence of non-semi-polar GaN crystals. On 20 October 2006, at Nagoya University Akasaki Institute that all the construction work was done by the patent royalty income and also in the activities of Nagoya University.

There is a LED gallery in the institute which displays the history of blue LED research/developments. It is located in the center of the collaboration research zone in Nagoya University Higashiyama campus.

Isamu Akasaki HONORS / AWARDS

Isamu has achieved many awards in his career. In 1989, he was awarded Japanese Association for Crystal Growth Award. He won Chu-Nichi Culture Prize in 1991. He also won Technological Contribution Award in 1994.

In 1995, Akasaki won Heinrich Welker Gold Medal. He also won Engineering Achievement Award in 1996. In 1998, he won Inoue Harushige Award, C&C Prize, Laudise Prize, Jack A. Morton Award and Rank Prize. He also won Fellow Award, Gordon E. Moore Award, Honoris Causa Doctorate, and Toray Science and Technology Prize in 1999.

In 2001, he won Asahi prize and Honoris Causa Doctorate. He won Outstanding Achievement Award, Fujihara Prize ad Takeda Award in 2002. He won President’s Award, Solid State Devices & Materials Award in 2003. He was awarded Tokai TV Culture Prize and University Professor Award in 2004. He also won the John Bardeen Award and Outstanding Achievement Award in 2006.

In 2007, he won the Honorable Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, he won Foreign Associate Award. He also won Kyoto Prize Advanced Technology in 2009. In 2010, he was honored with Lifetime Professor Award at Meijo University.

In 2011, he was awarded Edison Medal, Special Award, and Minami-Nippon Culture Prize. Isamu Akasaki won the Nobel Prize in Physics and Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Isamu is also awarded National Awards. In 1997 he won Medal with Purple Ribbon. He was also awarded Order of the Rising Sun Award in 2002. In 2004, he won Person of Cultural Merit. The Japanese Emperor honored him with the Order of Culture Award in 2011.

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