LED inventor feels work bypassed by Nobel

URBANA, Ill. (AP) — A retired University of Illinois physicist is questioning whether a Nobel Prize awarded Tuesday to two Japanese and a Japanese-born American scientist ignores the work he and others did to invent the world’s first LED.

Nick Holonyak (HOHL’-nyak) Jr. invented that first, red light-emitting diode back in 1962. Some colleagues have said the invention deserved the Nobel. Holonyak never won the honor and never asserted he deserved it.