Props to KAIST and Hannam U. Now if we can just get them to research fan death, then we might have a first!

The Chaebol pyramid system of management structure has few fans however, simply because it is not flexible enough to deal with people like Nakamura and others (researchers) whose work is not glamorous enough to merit the loving look of ones superiors. Because of such, Korea is fortunate to have a KAIST on hand to help retain their experience pool.

The classic example of this is that of one Shuji Nakamura. During the 90s, this unknown researcher employed by Nichia Chemical Company in Japan was experimenting with compound semiconductor materials. His superiors didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Requests for funding and procurement of equipment by Nakamura fell mostly on deaf ears. So he built his own equipment and funded his experiments partly out of his own pocket.

Some years later, Nakamura announced that he had successfully produced the world’s first blue laser diode. Somehow, he had managed to beat out bigger, well-funded research labs such as Corning who were attempting to do the same thing. The development of the blue laser was significant because the blue laser has a thinner wavelength than red lasers and therefore has a finer resolution with tremendous implications for any application that uses a laser, such as dvd players.

Nichia Chemical Company awarded him a bonus of a grand total of $500 and tried to retain ownership of the patent. Nakamura eventually decided to leave his company and pursue research in academia. He is now a professor at UC Santa Barbara.

I would only worry about Photoshop tricks if a leader of this project came forward with a request for money and media coverage. I don’t think these guys are dan-ta-ra.