OSA Fellow and Honorary Member Honored for Development of Solid State Lighting Technology
WASHINGTON - The Optical Society (OSA), the world's leading champion for optics and photonics, extends congratulations to the winners of the 2021 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) -- OSA Fellow Russell Dupuis, OSA Honorary Member Nick Holonyak Jr., M. George Craford and Nobel Laureate Shuji Nakamura, both recipients of the OSA Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award, and Nobel Laureate Isamu Akasaki -- for their achievements in solid-state lighting technology. Their pioneering work led to the creation of LED lighting.
"The recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering have transformed our capabilities to reduce health threats such as COVID-19, communicate, travel and brighten our world," said 2021 OSA President Connie Chang-Hasnain. "Their groundbreaking and disruptive innovation has improved energy efficiency and contributed to a more sustainable environment. OSA applauds the accomplishments of Dr. Holonyak, Dr. Dupuis and all of the 2021 QEPrize winners."
"The size of the market and equipment has increased dramatically" as a result of this technology, said Dupuis. In an interview, he regarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize as the most important recognition of his career.
The QEPrize is awarded for "innovation in engineering which has been of global benefit to humanity." The GBP 1 million prize, established in 2013, promotes excellence in engineering and celebrates visionaries in the field.
Previous winners include OSA Fellow Eric Fossum and OSA Emeritus member George Smith, 2009 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, for the development of image sensor technology, also called "camera-on-a-chip." They were honored in 2017 for a game-changing technology, digital cameras, that is now a standard feature in smartphones.
