| Masanori Koshiba |
Dr. Masanori Koshiba completed his doctoral course in electronics engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University in 1976, and was appointed as lecturer in Kitami Institute of Technology in the same year. He was promoted to associate professor in 1977. He became associate professor of the Department of Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, in 1979, and professor of the same university in 1987. He was dean of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University from 2006 to 2010, and has been director of the Carrier Center of the university since 2012.Dr. Koshiba developed original and highly precise numerical analysis technology in the fields of optical fiber science, optoelectronics, and nanophotonics. He then rapidly incorporated this technology into optical fibers that have a new structure, and into integrated optical device/circuit design. Collectively, his work has broken new ground in the fields of opto/radio science and electromagnetic theory.
Specifically, his research focused on enhancing the finite element method for wave analysis. He demonstrated that this method can be universally applied to the design of many optical/wave devices, starting with surface acoustic wave devices, which are essential to building mobile phones, and ranging from microwave/millimeter wave circuits to optical fibers, and optical waveguide devices. In particular, his discovery of how to eliminate non-physical solutions, known as spurious solutions, which were a major barrier to the widespread use of the finite element method, was to contribute greatly to the subsequent development of the method. Since the spurious-free elements he has developed are highly compatible with structures that have curved boundaries, they are widely used both in Japan and abroad, especially in the fields of optical fiber science and nanophotonics. More recently, Dr. Koshiba has been a driving force in the development of innovative optical fibers that break through the limitations of existing optical fibers, blazing new trails in this field. In September 2012, a research team, including members from Hokkaido University, attracted widespread global attention when they attained the world’s fastest optical transmission rate of 1 Pbit/s, far exceeding 100 Tbit/s, which had been considered the technical limit. Dr. Koshiba designed the annular 12-core optical fiber used in this experiment, contributing to the successful implementation of the first 1-Pbit/s transmission.
As a leading researcher in opto/radio science and electromagnetic theory, he has authored more than 500 papers and been published in such prestigious transactions as those of the IEICE, IEEE and OSA. For these achievements, he received Best Paper Awards (1987, 1997, and 1999) and the Achievement Award (2004) from the IEICE, and was made a fellow of the IEICE (2002), IEEE (2003) and OSA (2005).
Dr. Koshiba has also been committed to the advancement of the IEICE, serving as President of the Electronics Society (1999), Director, International Coordination and Publicity (2003 - 2004), Chair of the Technical Committee of Optoelectronics (2005), Chair of the Hokkaido Section (2008), and Vice President of the IEICE (2009 - 2010). He has also worked for society at large as a technical expert, serving as expert member of the Degree Review Committee, National Institute for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (2001 - 2006), expert member of the Council for Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2004 - 2006), member of the board of governors of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) (2004 - 2007), and is currently a member of the Science Council of Japan.
As described above, Dr. Masanori Koshiba has made outstanding contributions to the IEICE and to the field of electronics, information and communication, and we are therefore convinced that he is a worthy recipient of IEICE’s Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award.
