Falling Rouble cuts value of ‘electronic Nobel’ prize

The highest Russian technology award was presented here on Friday to two American recipients, calling their work as the greatest contribution to humanity in their fields.

The Global Energy Prize, though not a government award, is looked upon in Russia as the 

‘electronics Nobel’. It was given to Nobel Laureate Shuji Nakamura for his contribution to white LED light technology, which is derived from his invention of blue LED for which he had received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.

The prize was shared by B. Jayant Baliga, professor at North Carolina University for his invention of the digital switch or the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) which has raised efficiency of all digital equipment and computer hardware and all powered machines, saving trillions of dollars for consumers around the world.

The prize, established by several top Russian energy companies, was presented by Igor Sechin, a close aide to President Vladimir Putin, who changed his plan at the last minute, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Sechin also read out President Putin’s message.

The Rouble 33-million award, though, has lost much of its value because of the decline in the Russian currency. It was equivalent to over a $1.2 million dollars, but at today’s rate it would be only around $550,000 to be shared equally by the two recipients. But the recipient felt that the global honour which came with the prize was more important.

Nakamura said that his next big venture was <g data-gr-id="26">development</g> of white laser light, which will increase the efficiency of all equipment which uses light in any form. “The light would be 1,000 times brighter, and would occupy <g data-gr-id="24">space</g> of half a millimetre by half a millimetre only,” the Nobel Laureate said.

He said the invention was still at a work-in-progress stage and it would take at least five years before it would be commercially available. But it would double the efficiency of laser lights to around 60 percent from what is available at present.