"Future program" up to 2001. From 1996 he started as a Project Leader of "High-Tech Research Center for Nitride Semiconductors" at Meijo University, sponsored by MEXT until 2004. From 2003 up to 2006 he was the Chairman of "R&D Strategic Committee on the Wireless Devices Based on Nitride Semiconductors" sponsored by METI. He continued working as a Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University, Professor of Meijo University from 1992. He was also the Director of the Research Center for Nitride Semiconductors at Meijo University since 2004. He also worked as a Research Fellow at Akasaki Research Center of Nagoya University from 2001. Death Akasaki died of pneumonia, on April 1, 2021, aged 92. Honors and awards Scientific and academic 1989 – Japanese Association for Crystal Growth (JACG) Award 1991 – Chu-Nichi Culture Prize 1994 – Technological Contribution Award, Japanese Association for Crystal Growth in commemoration of its 20th anniversary 1995 – Heinrich Welker Gold Medal, the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors 1996 – Engineering Achievement Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers / Lasers Electro-Optics Society 1998 – Inoue Harushige Award, Japan Science and Technology Agency 1998 – C&C Prize, the Nippon Electric Company Corporation 1998 – Laudise Prize, the International Organization for Crystal Growth 1998 – Jack A. Morton Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1998 – Rank Prize, the Rank Prize Foundation 1999 – Fellow, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1999 – Gordon E. Moore Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Science and Technology, the Electrochemical Society 1999 – Honoris Causa Doctorate, the University of Montpellier II 1999 – Toray Science and Technology Prize, Toray Science Foundation 2001 – Asahi Prize, the Asahi Shinbun Cultural Foundation 2001 – Honoris Causa Doctorate, Linkoping University 2002 – Outstanding Achievement Award, the Japan Society of Applied Physics 2002 – Fujihara Award, the Fujihara Foundation of Science 2002 – Takeda Award, the Takeda Foundation 2003 – President's Award, the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) 2003 – Solid State Devices & Materials (SSDM) Award 2004 – Tokai TV Culture Prize 2004 – University Professor, Nagoya University 2006 – John Bardeen Award, the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2006 – Outstanding Achievement Award, the Japanese Association for Crystal Growth 2007 – Honorable Lifetime Achievement Award, the 162nd Research Committee on Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Photonic and Electronic Devices, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 2008 – Foreign Associate,