The winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, announced the morning of 7 October in Stockholm, are Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura. They are honored for their "invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."

Shuji Nakamura is also among the winners of the 63rd Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, recognized for his pioneering development of large-venue, large-screen direct view color displays. The award was presented during the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 2012.

"Brilliant!" tells Nakamura's story of being a gifted and formerly unknown Japanese engineer who stunned the world by solving the last piece in the puzzle of manufacturing solid state white lights. The invention of this holy-grail product had eluded the best scientific minds for twenty-five years.

Bob Johnstone traces Nakamura's career, during which he distinguished himself with an unprecedented series of inventions--bright blue, green, ultraviolet, and then white LEDs, plus a blue laser that will play an essential role in the next-generation DVD players. After he was forced to leave Nichia Chemical, the company where he had worked for twenty years, his former employer sued him. The result was a multimillion-dollar settlement in a landmark decision that acknowledged, for the first time, the rights of individual inventors working in a corporate context. Today, Nakamura holds a professor's chair at UCSB, where he continues to develop LEDs.

Made available in cooperation with Prometheus Books.