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Nick Holonyak
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<p>Nick Holonyak Jr. was an American engineer and educator. He is noted particularly for his 1962 invention and first demonstration of a semiconductor <a href="/facts/Laser_diode/TjHzJteV">laser diode</a> that emitted visible light. This device was the forerunner of the first generation of commercial <a href="/facts/Light-emitting_diode/gE8x4MDb">light-emitting diodes</a> (LEDs). He was then working at a <a href="/facts/General_Electric/bBm5CzVY">General Electric</a> research laboratory near <a href="/facts/Syracuse%2c_New_York/luD99ChN">Syracuse, New York</a>. He left General Electric in 1963 and returned to his alma mater, the <a href="/facts/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana-Champaign/gusw7HoS">University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</a>, where he later became John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics. </p>