University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering

M. George Craford

[title]
To M. George Craford for pioneering contributions and leadership in the research and development of visible-spectrum light-emitting-diode materials and devices, including the first yellow LED.

R&D Manager, Materials Technology R&D, Optoelectronics Division, Hewlett-Packard Company, San Jose, California

  • BA, Physics, 1961, University of Iowa
  • MS, Physics, 1963, University of Illinois
  • PhD, Physics, 1967, University of Illinois

George Craford is the world’s foremost expert on light-emitting diodes. He gave us the yellow LED and is the person who realized that the nitrogen trap could be used so effectively for the bright LEDs in indirect alloys, such as GaAsP. There are now billions of bright yellow N-doped GaAsP LEDs, not to mention high brightness red-orange GaAsP:N LEDs, all over the world in countless applications and displays. He is the one who made this work happen, both conceptually and in its industrial development. First at Monsanto and now at Hewlett-Packard, he carried out the development and commercialization of GaAsP:N LED materials and devices. Besides publishing scientific paper, he has made countless jobs possible. The visible LED market is about one third of the total III-V semiconductor device market, and a significant fraction is dominated by George Craford’s work.

Most recently, Craford and his group developed and then introduced commercially super high-brightness yellow In(AIGa)P double heterojunction LEDs that exceed in light output (lumens/watt) the traditional incandescent lamp. Rarely do we have the opportunity to give an Alumni Award to someone so deserving for the technical work and who, in addition, has done so much to put the work into the marketplace, thereby providing jobs for others.

Craford was elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1990 and to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1994. For his outstanding accomplishments, he has been awarded the IEEE Morris Liebmann Award, NASA Achievement Award, and Electronics Division Award of the Electrochemical Society.

Current as of 1996.