Ibuka was co-founder of a tiny recording company that ultimately grew to become the Sony Corporation. One of his most important contributions was to lead the Japanese charge to make their own innovative electronic products instead of simply copying what was being done in the West.  He brought transistor technology to Japan, and Sony built the first Japanese transistor radio and the world’s first transistorized television set. While earning his degree from the School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University, he earned the nickname “genius inventor.” After graduating in 1933, he began working at Photo-Chemical Laboratory which recorded and processed movie film. In 1945, after World War II, Ibuka left to start a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo. The next year he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita, and they founded a company called “Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.,” which translates in English to “Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation.” The company built Japan’s first tape recorder called the “Type-G.” In the early 1950s, while traveling in the United States, Ibuka heard about Bell’s invention of the transistor. He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company.  While most American companies researched the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka envisioned using it for communications. While Regency and Texas Instruments in the US may have built a transistor radio first, it was the Tokyo company that really invested the radio as a viable commercial product. Ibuka’s company, now named “Sony,” a combination of the Latin word for sound “sonus” and the chic Japanese boys of the time nicknamed “sonny,” quickly took over the market. Ibuka led Sony in directions that were unusual for a Japanese company at the time, as they tried to create more of their own products instead of simply modifying Western technology. In 1976, Ibuka stepped down as chairman of Sony, though he retained close connections with company as an advisor until his death. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett) Cause of death: Heart failure