Commemorative Lectures

Lecture topics

Remembrances

Abstract of the lecture

I am a descendant of the East European Jews who migrated to the United States around 1900. These people and most Jews who lived in the west had a centuries old culture that strongly stressed the study of their ancient religious texts. The scholars who studied those texts were usually the most respected people in the community. The "emancipation" of the Jews in Western Europe in the 19th century and the large scale migration of East European Jews to the U.S. around 1900 resulted in many of them acculturating to the surrounding culture to a large degree. However, their modified culture remained coherent, and the respect that they had for religious scholarship became respect and support for secular scholarship such as the study of medicine, science, law and other intellectual disciplines. My grandparents were immigrants in the migration of around 1900. They carried the cultural traditions of their people. My parents were born in New York, and because their families were poor, had to work instead of going to college. Nevertheless, they were self - educated and well read. I benefited from the cultural heritage of respect, support and encouragement for scholarly studies. It is also part of my heritage that it is important for a person to try to contribute to society in some way. For me contributing to science and technology would be the way to do that. I believe that the culture that I was exposed to as a child and supported by as a young man was by far the major determinant of my life's path. As the result of my father's interest in science and his efforts to interest me, as well as experiences in high school, I decided to study chemistry. Undergraduate studies were at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and at Denver University. Graduate studies were at Michigan State University. I ended up with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry with a strong emphasis on physics. I was employed doing basic research at AVCO corp. and Oak Ridge National Labs for the first ten years after graduation. I then joined the research area at Bell Labs, which provided a stimulating intellectual environment in which to conduct research. Scientific research always benefits from the stimulation of a community such as that provided by the Labs. Among many other projects, I worked on developing an injection laser that could operate continuously at room temperature. These efforts, undertaken with my colleague Izuo Hayashi, were successful. My publications on this, and many other projects always gave me satisfaction because I believed that I was doing something to advance mankind's knowledge. The mode of collaboration that Hayashi, a physicist, and I, a chemist, established became a common one for people working in semiconductor device research. After Hayashi departed for Japan I established similar collaborations and continued in that mode very productively for the next 20 years. After retirement I expanded my scientific horizons by accepting invitations from the National Research Council to join several committees that monitored the work of NASA on all science programs. These are unpaid appointments that permit one to contribute to science in a way that is quite different from research, but nevertheless, rewarding. In addition I have been very active as a member of the Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies.

Lecture topics

Half a Century’s Journey in Research: Applying Physics for the Benefit of Society

Abstract of the lecture

I was born in Tokyo in 1922, the fourth son of a scientist of basic medicine. I don't know why, but it seems like I was a born scientist. As a boy, I would enjoy listening to my father's stories about science, and some of them still live fresh in my memory. I spent my elementary through high school days at Gakushuin. By the time I made it to the Faculty of Science of the University of Tokyo, World War II was in its closing days, and I had an opportunity to learn about microwaves as I measured the radar of the US Air Force during an air raid. This was the beginning of my life - long research into light. Over the fifty years since then, I have moved my work from one research institute to another, in Japan and overseas, almost every ten years. My first 20 year career as a researcher was at the University of Tokyo's laboratory on atomic nuclei, where I was assigned to work on large cyclotron oscillators that employed the same principle as the microwave. While engaged in the development of electronics for measurement there, I developed a growing interest in seeing with my own eyes the electronics being developed in the United States, which at that time was the world leader. I decided to go to the States, a journey that, in retrospect, signaled a great leap in my career. Following my work at two other institutions, I had the privilege of getting to know Mr. John Galt, then head of the research arm of Bell Laboratories, and in 1966 he asked me if I would be interested in doing semiconductor laser research. This unexpected offer raised the curtain on the latter half of my career. I quit my position at the University of Tokyo to become a regular researcher at Bell Laboratories. Heartened by Mr. Galt's remark that if semiconductor lasers could operate continuously at room temperature - a feat theretofore believed impossible - it would have a considerable impact on communications technology, I began working in conjunction with Dr. Morton B. Panish. As we groped about together in the dark, I happened upon an ideal hetero junction in a crystal that Dr. Panish had created. This was to pave the way to achieving the continuous operation of semiconductor lasers at room temperature on June 1, 1970. With this accomplished, I decided to return home to assume a position as a fellow at NEC Laboratories, where I plunged into practical uses for lasers. Sheer devotion on the part of young determined researchers led to a solution to what had once seemed a blind - alley pursuit. In the 1970s, these long - term efforts culminated in the development of many types of equipment employing applied optics, ranging from optical communications to compact disc players. And advances in the application of optics are far from having run their course: the most promising still lie in the future, which I believe will take the form of complex equipment that marries optics with electrons.

Lecture topics

The Story of My Life and Heterostructures

Abstract of the lecture

I started to take an interest in physics under strong influence of my school physics teacher. On his advice I chose Electronics Department of the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute for my student years. I have started to do my first research in semiconductor physics and devices during my student time. In 1953, I became a member of the scientific staff of the Ioffe Institute. Since that time and until now I have had the happiness to carry out the research in the most exciting area of modern physics and technology. The crucial point was the transition from the investigation of homostructures to heterostructures at the end of 1962 when the first p - n junction semiconductor lasers were invented. My current research interests are connected with the development of new sophisticated "artificial atoms" - quantum dots structures and their very perspective applications in optoelectronics and high - speed electronics. The author's point of view on the modern situation in science and especially in Russian Academy of Sciences is also exposed.