| Leo Esaki  AKA Esaki Reiona
Born: 12-Mar-1925
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: Asian
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist Nationality: Japan
Executive summary: Electron tunneling Leo Esaki discovered the forward bias tunneling effect in semiconductors, a quantum phenomenon which lets electrons and other particles escape through a potential barrier, which theoretical physicists had previously believed was impossible. Tunneling is based on wave equations of quantum mechanics, instead of the classical theories of physics, wherein electrons are dealt with as particles.
His 1958 discovery of tunneling led to his invention two years later of the Esaki diode, the first quantum electron device, which uses quantum mechanical effects to allow electrons to pass through junctions less than a hundred atoms thick, and diminishes current as voltage is increased with negative resistance. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973. Father: Soichiro Esaki (architect)
Mother: Niyoko Ito
Wife: Masako Araki (m. 1959, two daughters, one son)
Daughter: Nina
Daughter: Anna
Son: Eugene
Wife: Masako Kondo (m. 1986, no children)
High School: Third High School, Tokyo
University: BS, Tokyo University (1947)
University: PhD, Tokyo University (1959)
Teacher: Adjunct Professor, Waseda University, Japan
Administrator: President, University of Tsukuba (1993-99)
Administrator: President, Shibaura Institute of Technology (2000-05)
IBM Fellow (1967-92)
IBM Research Scientist (1960-67)
Sony Manager of Semiconductor Dept, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (1956-60)
Kobe Kogyo Physicist (1947-56)
Member of the Board of IBM IBM-Japan (1976-92)
Member of the Board of Open Loop Ltd. (2000-)
Nishina Memorial Award 1959
Asahi Press Award 1960
Toyo Rayon Foundation Award 1960
IRE Morris Liebmann Memorial Award 1961
Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Medal 1961
The Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy 1965
Nobel Prize for Physics 1973 (with Ivar Giaever and Brian D. Josephson)
Japanese Order of Culture 1974
ACS International Prize for New Materials 1985
IEEE Medal of Honor 1991
Japan Prize 1998
Order of the Rising Sun 1998
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Fellow, 1974
American Philosophical Society Foreign Member, 1991
Italian National Academy of Science Foreign Member
The Japan Academy 1975
Korean Academy of Science and Technology Foreign Member
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science Foreign Member, 1989
National Academy of Engineering Foreign Associate, 1977
Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Member
Yamada Science Foundation Board of Driectors, 1976-present
Author of books:
Large Scale Integrated Circuits Technology (1982, physics; with Giovanni Soncini)
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.
Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile
Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications
| 
