Professor Shuji Nakamura, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, is known as the inventor of a semiconductor diode, an electronic element that emits a bluish purple color. Of course, he is one of the most noted Japanese scientists in the world. He is also the hero of the scientific equivalent of a rags-to-riches success story.
This year's government white paper on science and technology cites his invention as the "trail blazer" in the development of blue-color-emitting diodes. It is an achievement that rivals in significance the Nobel Prize-winning invention of electrically conductive plastics by the chemist Hideki Shirakawa.
Mr. Nakamura began experimenting with his idea in the shabby warehouse of a Japanese chemical company here, using handmade devices. Few scientists paid much attention to him at the time. Yet he continued his research with single-minded devotion and succeeded in developing a blue-color-emitting diode -- something that was considered impossible to produce in the 20th century.