Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Leo Esaki is a Japanese solid-state physicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson for his work on quantum tunnelling in semiconductors, which led to his invention of the tunnel diode that exploits this phenomenon. His research was done when he was with Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. He has also contributed in being a pioneer of the semiconductor superlattices.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901, the others being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is traditionally the first award presented in the Nobel Prize ceremony.

March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 294 days remain until the end of the year.