Junichi Nishizawa\, Japan\'s \'Mr. Semiconductor\'

Junichi Nishizawa, Japan’s ‘Mr. Semiconductor,’ Rivaled U.S. Scientists

Researcher raced in 1950 to patent a PIN photodiode, used in today’s fiber-optic networks

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Working at a lab with a leaky roof in a city still clearing away World War II rubble, 23-year-old engineer Junichi Nishizawa thought he could take on the top scientists in the world’s superpower, the U.S.

The invention of the transistor by Bell Laboratories scientists including William Shockley had galvanized scientists in the new field of electronics. Mr. Nishizawa was trying to create a semiconductor device to convert light signals into electrical current.

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