{"id":"leo-esaki","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/leo-esaki","language":"en","name":"Leo Esaki","name_en":"Leo Esaki","name_ne":null,"description":"Japanese physicist (1925-)","headline":"Japanese physicist (1925-)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Leo Esaki  is a Japanese physicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson for his work on tunneling in semiconductors, which led to his invention of the tunnel diode that exploits this phenomenon. His research was done when he was with Sony. He has also contributed in being a pioneer of semiconductor superlattices.","summary_more":[],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"12 March 1925","date":"1925-03-12"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Takaida","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18700241"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Japan","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"physicist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q169470"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"University of Tokyo","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7842"},{"text":"Kyoto University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q336264"},{"text":"Third Higher School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11602219"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P69"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Asahi Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q720434","date":"1959"},{"text":"Nishina Memorial Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1350431","date":"1959"},{"text":"Fellow of the American Physical Society","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41955909","date":"1960"},{"text":"Stuart Ballantine Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7626301","date":"1961"},{"text":"IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q576885","date":"1961"},{"text":"Japan Academy Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3276057","date":"1965-07-05"},{"text":"IBM Fellow","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q45924","date":"1967"},{"text":"Nobel Prize in Physics","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38104","date":"1973"},{"text":"Order of Culture","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q530124","date":"1974"},{"text":"Person of Cultural Merit","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2545449","date":"1974"},{"text":"James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6130765","date":"1985"},{"text":"honorary doctorate from University of Montpellier-II","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q126416266","date":"1987"},{"text":"Harold Pender Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10354962","date":"1989"},{"text":"IEEE Medal of Honor","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q678414","date":"1991"},{"text":"Order of the Rising Sun, 1st class","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10901470","date":"1998"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Esaki","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Leo Esaki born?","a":"Leo Esaki was born on 12 March 1925 in Takaida."},{"q":"Where did Leo Esaki study?","a":"Leo Esaki was educated at University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Third Higher School."}],"related":[{"name":"Akira Suzuki","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/akira-suzuki"},{"name":"Akira Yoshino","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/akira-yoshino"},{"name":"Hideki Shirakawa","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/hideki-shirakawa"},{"name":"Hideki Yukawa","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/hideki-yukawa"},{"name":"Hiroshi Amano","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/hiroshi-amano"},{"name":"Isamu Akasaki","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/isamu-akasaki"},{"name":"Kenichi Fukui","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/kenichi-fukui"},{"name":"Koichi Tanaka","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/koichi-tanaka"},{"name":"Makoto Kobayashi","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/makoto-kobayashi"},{"name":"Masatoshi Koshiba","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/masatoshi-koshiba"},{"name":"Osamu Shimomura","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/osamu-shimomura"},{"name":"Ryōji Noyori","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ryoji-noyori"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/leo-esaki-9af7a4835e.jpg","width":320,"height":428,"license":"CC BY 4.0","credit":"日本学士院","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esaki_leo_Gakushiin.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Leo Esaki","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Esaki","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q179852","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179852","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Esaki leo Gakushiin.jpg by 日本学士院 (CC BY 4.0)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esaki_leo_Gakushiin.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Leo Esaki, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Esaki leo Gakushiin.jpg — 日本学士院, CC BY 4.0.","cite":"\"Leo Esaki\". DigiNepal. Last updated 1 November 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/leo-esaki. Retrieved 5 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-11-01T06:59:19Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/leo-esaki","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/leo-esaki","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/leo-esaki?lang=ne"}}