Gifts in Action - Dr. Nick Holonyak

MEET DR. HOLONYAK

This endowed chair helped support Dr. Nick Holonyak’s original work and research in the semiconductor device field. He and his students were the first to construct p-n diode quantum well lasers and are the source of the name quantum well laser. Holonyak is best known around the world for inventing the first practical light emitting diode (LED).

Holonyak was Bardeen’s first Ph.D. student and, in the 40 years from 1951 until Bardeen’s death, they were actively involved in work, research, proposals, discussions, seminars and lab visits. Holonyak’s inventions also include the basic silicon thyristor element that is the heart of the wall light dimmer and the visible spectrum semiconductor laser. In all, Holonyak has made significant contributions to the progress of science and technology.

THE BARDEEN CHAIR

The Sony Corporation sponsors the John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics because it understands the reason and magnitude of the semiconductor-transistor revolution.

WHAT HE SAYS

“The John Bardeen Chair is special to me because John Bardeen was personally outstanding in my life, in my graduate schooling and in what I went on to do,” said Holonyak. “He was the one who invited me to return here as a professor and bring my industrial research activity at GE to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.”