Hiroshi Amano

Hiroshi Amano is a physicist, engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology. He was the co-inventor of the blue LED, for which he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Isamu Akasaki and Shuji Nakamura. Amano was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2016 for the development of p-type gallium nitride (GaN) doping, enabling blue semiconductor LEDs.

Hiroshi Amano’s research focuses on the growth, characterization and device applications of group III nitride semiconductors, which are well known as materials used in blue light-emitting diodes today. In 1985, he developed low-temperature deposited buffer layers for the growth of group III nitride semiconductor films on a sapphire substrate, which led to the realization of group-III-nitride semiconductor based light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. In 1989, he succeeded in growing p-type GaN and fabricating a p-n-junction-type GaN-based UV/blue light-emitting diode for the first time in the world.

From 1988 to 1992, Amano was a research associate at Nagoya University. In 1992, he moved to Meijo University, where he was an assistant professor. From 1998 to 2002, He was an associate professor. In 2002, he became a professor. In 2010, he moved to the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, where he is currently a professor.