The LED lighting world is mourning a legend this week. The renowned innovator of LED illumination, scientist Nick Holonyak Jr., passed away in Urbana, Ill. He was 93. Holonyak is credited with developing the first practical visible-spectrum light-emitting diode (LED) in 1962. The breakthrough paved the way for today’s modern LED applications including light bulbs, TVs, smart phones and other device displays, lasers, and so much more. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Holonyak taught as a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics for 50 years, announced his death.