Amano, Hiroshi, 1960–, Japanese physicist, Ph.D. Nagoya Univ., Japan, 1989. He is a professor at Nagoya Univ. in Japan. Amano is the joint recipient with Shuji Nakamura and Isamu Akasaki of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which has enabled the development of bright, energy-saving white light sources. The three physicists, Akasaki and Amano working together at Nagoya Univ. and Nakamura working independently, were the first to figure out how to layer semiconductor materials in a way that yielded blue LEDs, which were required, in combination with pre-existing red and green LEDs, for the creation of white LED light sources, which are much more energy-efficient than incandescent light bulbs and more environmentally friendly than fluorescent bulbs.
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