The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973
Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever, Brian D. Josephson
Leo Esaki was born in Osaka,
Japan in 1925. Esaki completed work for a B.S. in Physics in 1947
and received his Ph.D in 1959, both from the University of Tokyo. Esaki is an IBM Fellow and has
been engaged in semiconductor research at the IBM Thomas J.
Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, since 1960.
Prior to joining IBM, he worked at the Sony Corp. where his
research on heavily-doped Ge and Si resulted in the discovery of
the Esaki tunnel diode; this device constitutes the first quantum
electron device. Since 1969, Esaki has, with his colleagues,
pioneered "designed semiconductor quantum structures" such as
man-made superlattices, exploring a new quantum regime in the
frontier of semiconductor physics.
The Nobel Prize in Physics (1973) was awarded in recognition of
his pioneering work on electron tunneling in solids. Other awards
include the Nishina Memorial Award (1959), the Asahi Press Award
(1960), the Toyo Rayon Foundation Award for the Promotion of
Science and Technology (1960), the Morris N. Liebmann Memorial
Prize from IRE (1961), the Stuart Ballantine Medal from the
Franklin Institute (1961), the Japan Academy Award (1965), the
Order of Culture from the Japanese Government (1974), the
American Physical Society 1985 International Prize for New
Materials for his pioneering work in artificial semiconductor
superlattices, the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1991 for contributions
to and leadership in tunneling, semiconductor superlattices, and
quantum wells. Dr. Esaki holds honorary degrees from Doshisha
School, Japan, the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, the
University of Montpellier, France, Kwansei Gakuin University,
Japan and the University of Athens, Greece. Dr. Esaki is a
Director of IBM-Japan, Ltd., on the Governing Board of the
IBM-Tokyo Research Laboratory, a Director of the Yamada Science
Foundation and the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan. He
serves on numerous international scientific advisory boards and
committees, and is an Adjunct Professor of Waseda University,
Japan. Currently he is a Guest Editorial writer for the Yomiuri
Press. Dr. Esaki was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences in May 1974, a member of the Japan Academy on
November 12, 1975, a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of
Engineering (USA) on April 1, 1977, a member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
on March 17, 1989, and a foreign member of the American
Philosophical Society in April of 1991.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971-1980, Editor Stig Lundqvist, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1992
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1973
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