UCSB Professor Shuji Nakamura Receives National Academy of Science Award

Eddie Lo
Contributing Writer, The Bottom Line, UCSB

May 6, 2020

On April 26, the 2020 National Academy of Science (NAS) Award for the Industrial Application of Science was awarded to Shuji Nakamura, a professor in the department of materials at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).

This year’s award was meant to highlight achievements in the field of sustainability. The triennial award honored Nakamura for his “pioneering discoveries, synthesis and commercial development of gallium nitride LEDs [light-emitting diodes] and their use in sustainable solid state light sources, which are reducing global greenhouse gas emissions while also reducing cost to those adopting this technology,” said NAS President Marcia McNutt.

Nakamura said it was a great honor to receive the award and went on to thank the support of Chancellor Henry T. Yang as well as faculty and staff at UCSB.

“LED light bulbs are more than 10 times more efficient than conventional incandescent light bulbs, and they last for 50 years. At their current adoption rate, by 2020, LEDs could reduce the world’s need for electricity by the equivalent of nearly 60 nuclear power plants,” Nakamura said.