Cree Inc. (Durham, NC) has announced that Dr. Shuji Nakamura is the recipient of the Cree Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Center for Solid State Lighting and Displays. Cree pledged $1.2 million to the College of Engineering at UCSB in September 2000 toward the endowment of the Cree Chair and to support research in the field of gallium nitride-based electronic materials and devices. Nakamura, a materials professor at UCSB, is currently the director of the UCSB Center for Solid State Lighting and Displays.
Dr. Nakamura joined the UCSB faculty in February 2000. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including most recently the 2000 Honda Prize conferred annual by the Honda Foundation of Japan. He is the 21st recipient of the prize and the third Japanese to be so honored. Other awards include the 1994 and 1997 Japan Society of Applied Physics awards, the Nikkei 1995 Best Products and 1996 Excellent Products awards, the 1996 Society of Information Display Special Recognition Award, the 1996 IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society Engineering Achievement Award, the 1996 Nishina Memorial Award, the 1997 Ohkochi Grand Technology Prize, the 1997 Materials Research Society Medal, the 1998 British Rank Prize and the 1998 IEEE Jack A. Morton Award. Nakamura is the author of 170 scientific papers and three books.
Neal Hunter, Chairman of Cree stated, “We are very pleased to support UCSB's commitment to gallium-nitride-based research and are excited that Dr. Nakamura has been named the recipient of the Cree Chair. Dr. Nakamura has been widely recognized for work on gallium nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs). The energy-efficient white LEDs are targeted to replace incandescent lights and are expected to use significantly less energy than the conventional incandescent bulb. We believe a large number of new white light applications will emerge beyond existing applications as solid-state illumination technology continues to evolve.”
Nakamura said, “I am honored to be the first holder of the Cree Chair in Solid State Lighting and Displays. Cree is recognized worldwide as a leader in solid-state lighting and as a key pioneering company in the development of the exciting new compound semiconductor technology that uses gallium nitride on silicon carbide. Cree financially supported the Solid State Lighting and Displays Center here at UCSB from the beginning, and we are grateful for that support.”