| Tokumichi Murakami |
Dr. Tokumichi Murakami graduated from the Department of Communication Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku University in 1971 and joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation the same year, where he was engaged in research and development of video information coding technology, and multimedia communication and broadcasting technology. Within the company, he successively worked in the Communication Research Department of the Corporate Research and Development Group, Information Electronics Laboratory, and the Communication System Technical Development Center. He was deputy director of the Information Technology R&D Center in 2000, and deputy director of the Advanced Technology R&D Center in 2002. He received his PhD in information science from the Department of Information Science, Graduate School, Tohoku University in 2002. From 2003 to 2013, as executive advisory engineer of the Corporate Research and Development Group, he led the company’s R&D. Since April 2014, he has been with Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University.Dr. Murakami has directed his considerable energy towards advancing video, information, communication and other related technologies. He has consistently sought to contribute to society by creating value through the systematization of these technologies, and by implementing and spreading the services made possible by these technologies. A specific example of his achievements is the development of an entirely novel videoconferencing system. This was based on his idea of a communication system that incorporates a vector quantization method that integrates Shannon’s communication model with pattern recognition and super-compression. He conceived this idea based on the experience he gained when developing an automatic farm product sorting machine that uses monitoring cameras and image recognition. He participated in standardization activities in CCITT (currently ITU-T), and proposed a core tool for integrating the relevant technologies. He thereby made tremendous contributions to the international standardization of a terminal standard, H.320, which is founded on H.261, a video coding standard for videoconferencing and telephone systems. He seized upon a series of international standardization activities (MPEG-2，MPEG-4, H.264, HEVC/H.265, etc.) as opportunities for open innovation, and drove the development of advanced technologies. Through these activities, he has made a historic contribution to the development of information and communication technology and the promotion of related industries. His achievements in this area include commercial development of a videoconferencing and telephone system, development of an MPEG-2-based satellite communication SNG codec, and development of the world’s first MPEG-2 HDTV codec, which was used as a verification tool for digital broadcasting systems both in Japan and abroad. These were indeed historic contributions in that they allowed the launch of digital broadcasting services. MPEG-4, H.264, and HEVC/H.265 are today widely adopted in digital media, ranging from smartphones to super-high-definition TVs. He also had a part in the verification of high-quality digital cinema and high-definition displays for air traffic control.
Dr. Murakami promoted industry-academia-government collaboration by serving as a member of the 10th Technical Committee, Telecommunication Standardization Committee, Telecommunications Technology Council, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and as chief R&D manager in various national projects sponsored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, or the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. They include national projects on information appliance Internet, high-capacity high-speed networks, super-high-definition video and digital cinema, and digital watermarking.
Dr. Murakami has made significant contributions to the development of science and engineering societies, and to the education of young researchers. Within the IEICE, he served variously as the associate editor of Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences, as the councilor and as the secretary of the IEICE. Since 2012, as director of the Strategic Planning Committee, he has applied himself to revitalizing the IEICE and strengthening collaboration with outside organizations by reforming the organization of the IEICE, its events and information systems, establishing a liaison with CEATEC, and transmitting information over an SNS. He also expanded collaboration with other organizations. He has held several important posts, such as director of finance and councilor in the Society of Information Theory and its Application, and vice president, director of business, and chair of the Organizing Committee for the General Conference in the Information Processing Society of Japan. He has served as a member of organizing committees or presented keynote speeches at a large number of IEEE-sponsored conferences. He also devoted considerable time and energy to education as a visiting professor at the Center for Advanced Science and Innovation, Osaka University.
For these achievements, he has received numerous awards, such as the Achievement Award, the Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award from the IEICE, the Best Paper Award, and the Technology Award/Development Prize from the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan, the Technology Award/Advancement Prize and Niwa/Takayanagi Award/Achievement Prize, and the Best Book Award from the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, the Consumer Electronics Society Paper Award from the IEEE, the R&D Magazine R&D 100 Award, and the National Invention Award/Director-General of the Patent Office Prize from the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation. He was granted fellowship status by the IEICE, the Information Processing Society of Japan, the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, and the IEEE.
As stated above, his contributions to technical progress, industry and society at large, and to the development of electronics, information and communication technology through his highly motivated activities in the IEICE and other domestic and international engineering societies, and in international standardization and industry-academia-government collaboration are of inestimable value. We thus recommend that he be made a fellow, honorary member of the IEICE.
