OLED Inventor Wins Wolf Prize

Ching Tang, the Doris Johns Cherry professor of chemical engineering in the University of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in New York, has been awarded the Wolf Prize in chemistry. Tang is the inventor of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED), which gave birth to a multibillion dollar industry. The diodes have been used to create displays in cell phones, computers and televisions that are more energy-efficient and thinner than LCD displays and offer a clearer picture. The Wolf Prize, which is given annually by the Wolf Foundation, is widely considered second in prestige to the Nobel Prize. Tang shares the 2011 prize with professors Stuart Alan Rice of the University of Chicago and Krzystof Matyjaszewski of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.