Leo Esaki (1925- )

Awarded the Prize “for his experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively.”

Japanese physicist. Leo Esaki was born in Osaka, Japan on March 12, 1925. He completed his B.Sc. in physics in 1947 received his Ph.D. in 1959, both from the University of Tokyo. In 1956 he became chief physicist of the Sony Corporation later he worked at IBM where he has been engaged in semiconductor research at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center.