News: LEDs
2 February 2021
LED lighting development wins 2021 QEPrize
The 2021 QEPrize (comprising a total cash prize of £1m) has been awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Shuji Nakamura, Nick Holonyak Jr, M. George Craford and Russell Dupuis for the creation and development of LED lighting, recognizing not only the global impact of LED and solid-state lighting but also the contribution that the technology has made, and will continue to make, to reducing energy consumption and addressing climate change.
First awarded in 2013 in the name of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II, the 2021 QEPrize was open to up to five living individuals (of any nationality) personally responsible for a ground-breaking innovation in engineering that has been of global benefit to humanity.
The 2021 winners were announced by Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation.
Visible LEDs now comprise a global industry predicted to be worth over $108bn by 2025 through low-cost, high-efficiency lighting. LED lighting is 75% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, and is playing a crucial role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. LED bulbs last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs and their large-scale use reduces the energy demand required to cool buildings.
“This is a team prize. I was able to do what I did in the 1980s, because of what had come before,” comments professor Nakamura. “When I was modifying reactors every morning and every afternoon continuously for a year and a half, I never thought it would be so successful,” he adds.
“The QEPrize is so prestigious and it is spectacular to receive recognition from The Royal Family,” says Dr Craford. “I am proud to part of something that has made such a big impact on the world,” he adds.
“All five of us each played an important role,” notes professor Dupuis. “In those early days, when it was long days and nights hand-building reactors, Nick Holonyak mentored us. He really drew us in and inspired us to be part of the adventure that is engineering.”
“This year’s prize winners have not only helped humanity to achieve a greater degree of mastery over the environment, they have enabled us to do so in a sustainable way. They have created a product which we now take for granted, but which will play a major role in ensuring that humanity can live in harmony with nature for many more centuries to come,” comments Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation, which administers the QEPrize.
The impact of the innovation “makes lighting a lot cheaper and more accessible for emerging economies,” notes professor Sir Christopher Snowden, chair of the QEPrize Judging Panel. “For example, LEDs are being used on fishing boats where previously the only option would have been paraffin lamps. They are much cheaper and safer. It is not only an extreme engineering achievement, but a societal impact that has a significant impact on the environment.”
The winners will be formally honored at a ceremony later this year.
The QEPrize is funded by support from the following corporate donors: BAE Systems plc, BP plc, GlaxoSmithKline, Hitachi Ltd., Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid plc, Nissan Motor Corp, Shell UK Ltd, Siemens UK, Sony, Tata Steel Europe, Tata Consultancy Services, and Toshiba.
