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[[GE Genius Series:Anil Duggal, physical chemist][Produced by Vivek Kemp for GE]]
[I'm Vivek Kemp for GE Reports. ]
[Many people believe that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. ]
[In fact, in 1879, Edison perfected an ]
[already 70-year-old device making]
[bulbs into the practical and consumer-ready products]
[we're all screwing into light sockets today. ]
[So it seems fitting that 130 years after Edison]
[improved light bulbs, the next genius in ]
[our series is redefining our need for them]
[Anil Duggal is a chemist and head of GE's Electronic Materials]
[Systems Advanced Technology Program. ]
[He has been leading the corporation's research in organic]
[light emitting diodes, or OLEDs.]
[You're already familiar with LED technology ]
[in cell phone buttons, and, of course, those ever-sleek]
[Duggal's organic LEDs are a little different. ]
[They're implanted on thin sheets of plastic that]
[can be bent, cut, they can even be folded.]
[And eventually, Duggal says, they will be manufactured on ]
[giant presses, similar to a newspaper printing]
[press, and people will simply tack up their lights to walls or drapes.]
[[Portable Lighting, Flexible Lamp] Imagine your wallpaper as a lighting source. ]
[Duggal says that day is actually coming soon. ]
[[Decorative Lighting, Wall Peel] Anil Duggal talks to me ]
[from his office in GE's Global Research Center]
[[V.K.] So explain to me about what OLEDs actually are and how they operate.]
[[A.D.] This new technology came about called organic LEDs,]
[which are basically really thin, organic]
[materials sandwiched between electrodes,]
[and when you put a voltage across them light comes out. ]
[What's really neat about this technology is that]
[these organic materials the same way you print a newspaper, ]
[So you could potentially take]
[these organic materials on, put a voltage across them, and light comes out. ]
[GE is a lighting company so we said, "Hey, maybe we]
[should try to make this work for lighting."]
[So no more lightbulbs, we'll just have light sheets?]
[[A.D.] Yeah, we still have a lot of issues to solve, but]
[if our dream comes true here we'll hopefully ]
[just have a roll and you'll just sort of lay it out]
[You can wrap it around things, plug it in, and you'll get light out. ]
[[V.K.] Were you always destined to be a scientist?]
[Was it a foregone conclusion?]
[[A.D.] I used to think so, but, no, I guess]
[I always thought I'd be a scientist and I went to college]
[and the first year I took all the science courses, etc. ]
[But I actually got pretty turned off from science after that first year.]
[It seemed like it was just endless]
[book problems that you had to solve, but you never got]
[to the big picture about why]
[things were happening on a bigger picture. ]
[My sophomore year in college ]
[I actually just stopped doing science courses and started]
[taking religion courses and reading about philosophy]
[So, yeah, I almost went in a different direction.]
[[V.K.] Anil, as you know, our series is called The GE Genius Series.]
[There seem to be two questions that come up]
[when you have such a lofty name. ]
[The first is are you a genius?]
[And second, do you see the world differently than the average person might?]
[I might just ask different questions, but certainly don't think I ]
[have a different wiring of my brain. ]
[[V.K.] To go back to light bulbs for a quick second, so much of our world]
[is centered on the light bulb. ]
[In fact, GE was really kind of built on lightbulbs. ]
[How do you feel about fundamentally changing]
[this quintessential part of our lives?]
[[A.D.] I love the idea, actually. ]
[It's sort of creative construction. ]
[It's great if you can come up with something that's better than what was there before]
[I don't have any sort of negative feeling about it. ]
[[V.K.] Thanks for taking the time.]
[[A.D.] No problem, thank you.]
[[V.K.] That was Anil Duggal, chemist and head of GE's Electronic]
[Materials Systems Advanced Technology Pogram.]
[You can learn more about his work]
