3/12/2025 Michael O'Boyle
Written by Michael O'Boyle
As you move your computer mouse around the screen or scroll on your phone to read these words, you’re using technology Russell Dupuis helped enable. Same for when you turn on an LED light bulb or scan groceries at the self-checkout.
The underlying technologies for those common devices are compound semiconductors manufactured using techniques Dupuis first demonstrated nearly 50 years ago. His work made it possible to mass produce and commercialize these semiconductors for LEDs, lasers, solar cells, and more.
Now his contributions have been recognized with the Japan Prize, one of a few internationally recognized awards regarded by much of the scientific community as second only to the Nobel Prize.
“Professor Russell Dupuis’ breakthrough led to the commercialization of compound semiconductor production. It has become the foundation upon which our modern information society is built,” the Japan Prize Foundation wrote in announcing Dupuis’ selection.
Dupuis is professor emeritus in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He said the award comes 30 years almost to the day since his doctoral advisor Nick Holonyak, Jr. received it in the same field, adding an extra layer of meaning.
“It’s a major prize and many people I really worship in a technical sense have won it,” said Dupuis, who also is the Steve W. Chaddick Chair Emeritus. “It's always a wonderful thing to be recognized, but when it's connected to so many people you have grown up admiring, it's even more exciting — and humbling.”
Dupuis won the prize in the materials science and production field, one of six areas the prize recognizes on a rotating basis. The foundation received 149 nominations from thousands of prominent scientists around the world. Dupuis is one of two laureates in 2025, the other being professor Carlos Duarte of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia for “achievements in the fields of biological production, ecology, and the environment.”
A First in Lasers and Solar Cells
Dupuis was cited for developing metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) for compound semiconductors and contributing to its large-scale commercialization.
MOCVD uses raw materials in gaseous form to deposit thin films of a few nanometers to a few hundred nanometers thick on a substrate material. The process creates semiconductors made of two or more different elements called compound semiconductors. MOCVD can produce large, flat films more quickly than other techniques, making it ideal for mass production.
Dupuis used the approach to produce high-quality, uniform, and defect-free film quickly and at larger quantities than had ever been possible. The first demonstration in 1977 resulted in the first MOCVD-grown laser diodes that could operate continuously at room temperature. He also produced the first compound semiconductor solar cells created with the MOCVD process.
One of the key limitations Dupuis overcame was incorporating aluminum in MOCVD, an advance he attributed to underlying work from a colleague at Rockwell International, where Dupuis built his breakthrough MOCVD system.
“One of the important elements in our semiconductors is aluminum, and there was no way to get aluminum in the vapor phase conveniently until this technology was developed,” Dupuis said. “I have to give credit to Harold Manasevit at Rockwell before me, who showed that you could do X, Y, and Z with this technology but never made a device and never really used it to make a structure that someone could electronically analyze.”
Dupuis said exposure to that capability in Manasevit’s lab at Rockwell made him realize a vapor-phase process could break into a whole new device area.
“Sure enough, that was a key to getting people’s attention: making a laser diode that had a low threshold, good reliability, and was equivalent to any commercially available device,” he said.
Dupuis said proving the MOCVD process worked generated interest worldwide, unlocking broad innovation and creating whole new industries. Companies quickly emerged to provide the equipment and raw chemicals needed to make the semiconductor materials using MOCVD.
Shifting from Emitters to Detectors
The Japan Prize is the latest prestigious international honor for Dupuis for his work on MOCVD and LEDs. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Prize for Engineering in 2021 and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2022. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the IEEE, the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.
Dupuis will travel to Japan in April to accept the Japan Prize during a week of events and celebrations, including an awards ceremony where he will meet the emperor and empress of Japan.
In the meantime, he’s still at work. His current research focuses on using MOCVD to make compound semiconductors that are detectors rather than emitters. The devices are designed for more specialized and high-value systems for NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy — for example, ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet light detectors for space observations or detectors for biomedical instruments like next-generation PET scanners.
The detectors also would be useful for robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other emerging technologies that will shape the future — much like LEDs, lasers, and solar cells he enabled have shaped the present.
How to approach technological problems
Dupuis studied electrical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1970, a master’s degree in 1971 and a doctorate in 1973. He was advised by professor Nick Holonyak, Jr., another Japan Prize laureate renowned for inventing the LED.
“I was very fortunate to take Nick’s junior- and senior-level classes on quantum electronics and lasers,” Dupuis said. “I was even luckier to be able to join his research group as an undergraduate student. Nick prepared his students well with his direct, hands-on approach to solving problems and his focus on developing new and important ideas.”
He recalls that Holonyak was infectiously optimistic and gave his students constant encouragement, motivating them to work hard and push the envelope.
“Nick taught me how to approach technological problems, and his lessons were important throughout my career,” he said.
Dupuis has received several honors from Illinois for his achievements, including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alumni Loyalty Award in 1997, The Grainger College of Engineering’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in 2004, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1987.
This story was adapted from the article “Russell Dupuis Receives Japan Prize for Laying the Foundation for LEDs, Solar Cells, Lasers, and Other Everyday Tech” by Joshua Stewart for the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering.