The man who created the first light-emitting diode (LED) light in the 1960s has said he feels insulted at being overlooked for a Nobel Prize after three scientists were honoured for their blue version behind the glowing screens of today’s mobile phones, computers and TVs.

For years, many of Nick Holonyak’s colleagues have said he deserved the Nobel Prize for his invention of the first LED, the tiny red light that made fibre-optics networks, DVDs and a range of other technologies possible.

Nick Holonyak questions why his work on the LED in the 1960s has not merited a Nobel Prize.

Holonyak always resisted the suggestion that he and his 1962 invention had been snubbed, but Tuesday’s Nobel Prize in physics to the men who created the first blue LED prompted the former University of Illinois scientist to question why that LED was worthy while his − the very first − was not.

Speaking from his assisted-living home in Urbana, Illinois, Holonyak, 85, said the blue LED would never have happened without the work he and others undertook in the early 1960s.

“The LED as you know it today comes from us,” he said, sitting next to his bed, thumbing through a book, The Bright Stuff, written about him and his invention. “The blue LED? You cannot get to it, cannot [without that].”

Blue LEDs have continued the evolution begun by the red LED, leading to the invention of smartphones and computer and television screens.

Blue LEDs also combine with green and red LEDs to create light that appears white, an energy-efficient replacement for traditional incandescent bulbs. One popular use is to make Christmas lights brighter.

Holonyak assumed several years ago that he would never get the Nobel Prize and accepted that, said his wife, Katherine.

“I’m an old guy now,” he added. “But I find this one insulting.”

The prize went to Japanese scientists Isamu Akasaki, 85, a professor at Meijo University, Nagoya, Hiroshi Amano, 54, of Nagoya University, and Japanese-born American scientist Shuji Nakamura, 60, of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences briefly referenced Holonyak’s work in the scientific background issued with the prize, but made no reference to him not winning the award.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Swedish Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Holonyak said he was not diminishing the work of the scientists who were honoured and knows Nakamura. But he believes the work on the blue LED cannot be separated from the original LED and he and the other people involved in that research.

“I don’t think it’s fair to [them],” he said of early LED researchers.

Delaina Amos, a University of Louisville professor who works with LEDs, said the blue LED was worthy of recognition, but believed Holonyak’s invention also was.

“I think there’s no question that his work is very foundational, very deserving,” she said.