Home / Birthday profiles / Shuji Nakamura
Portrait of Shuji Nakamura

Birthday profile

Shuji Nakamura

Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate

Find birthday twinsOpen interactive profile
Born
May 22, 1954
Age in 2026
72
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1954

About Shuji Nakamura

Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese–American electronics engineer and co-inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. For this achievement, Nakamura, together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014. Nakamura sued for ¥2 billion (<US$20 million) as his fair share for the invention, and the district court awarded him ten times the amount, ¥20 billion (<US$200 million). In November 2022, Nakamura co-founded Blue Laser Fusion, a commercial fusion company, with Hiroaki Ohta, a former president of Tokyo-based drone maker ACSL. James Speck, founded Soraa, a developer of solid-state lighting technology built on pure gallium nitride substrates. The company's gross receipt surged from just over ¥20 billion (≈US$200 million) in 1993 to ¥80 billion (≈US$800 million) by 2001, 60 percent of which was accounted for by sales of blue LED products.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Shuji Nakamura timeline

  1. The company's gross receipt surged from just over ¥20 billion (≈US$200 million) in 1993 to ¥80 billion (≈US$800 million) by 2001, 60 percent of which was accounted for by sales of blue LED products.
  2. For this achievement, Nakamura, together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.
  3. In November 2022, Nakamura co-founded Blue Laser Fusion, a commercial fusion company, with Hiroaki Ohta, a former president of Tokyo-based drone maker ACSL.

The world when Shuji Nakamura was born

Shuji Nakamura was born in 1954. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1954

  • #1 song"Sh-Boom" – The Crew-Cuts
  • Top movieOn the Waterfront
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookLord of the Flies – William Golding

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentRoger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile
  • Top headlineSupreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
  • Technology milestoneFirst nuclear power plant begins operation (USSR)
  • Defining fadRock and roll emerges
  • Notable inventionNonstick pan (Tefal)
  • World population2.72 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • Also wonMinneapolis Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population162.0M

1954 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Shuji Nakamura's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19542026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,250$435,000
Average income$5,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.49$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population162.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.