Immigrant/Nobel Prize for Physics Recipient: I Achieved My American Dream

How a Nobel winner fought to achieve the American dream (The Globe & Mail)

By his own account, Shuji Nakamura toiled long, thankless years on tight budget in a distant part of Japan to develop the technology that eventually earned him a share of the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics.

Tuesday’s announcement of the prize winners was the latest twist in the remarkable career of a maverick researcher who grew bitter after his Japanese employer reaped millions in revenues from his inventions but gave him only a $200 bonus for his pioneering work.

He eventually left for a teaching job in California and litigation followed. His former employer accused him of betraying trade secrets, he countersued for a share of profits.

“I want to achieve the American dream,” he said at the time in an interview with Scientific American. “That’s why I came here. I couldn’t achieve the American dream in Japan.”