| Masao Sakauchi |
He conducted pioneering research over three decades ago on geographic information systems and multi-dimensional data structures that became the foundation of present-day map and location information businesses, and he received Best Paper Award from the IEICE for his remarkable foresight regarding multi-dimensional data structures. When multimedia was still in its infancy in 1990s, he conducted pioneering research on semantic analysis and retrieval of images and video while at the same time serving as an Executive Committee Member on the IEEE Multimedia System Technology Committee and as Deputy Editor of the 1994 inaugural issue of IEEE Multimedia, and gained wide recognition as a leader of the research community in Japan and abroad. As a principal investigator from 1998 to 2003, he conducted research on multimedia mediation systems, a new program of creative scientific research, and made dramatic progress in this new field. Dr. Sakauchi has also been very active in the area of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). While pursuing his own pioneering research in the ITS field, he contributed to the growing adoption of ITS and international collaborative R&D during his terms as Vice President of ITS Japan (from 2002 to the present), Chairman of the Japan ITS Advisory Committee, Program Chairman for the IEEE International Conference on ITS held in Tokyo in 1999, Organizational Vice Chairman of the ITS World Congress (held in Tokyo in 2013, and in Nagoya in 2014), and continues to promote ITS in Japan up to the present day. From the beginning in 2012, as a principal investigator, Dr. Sakauchi was instrumental in launching the "Cyber-physical IT integration platform for optimizing social systems and services project" sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and has worked tirelessly to expand the fields of information and communications through development of innovative new applications.
In terms of social contribution activities, Dr. Sakauchi has been actively involved in science and academia through participation as a member of the Japan Science Council and the Japan Academy of Engineering, contributed through the Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) by serving on the Technical Committee of the Council for Science, Technology and Academy sponsored by the MEXT, contributed through the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) by serving as Chairman of the Information and Communications Technology Subcommittee, contributed by serving as a member or expert member of other government agencies including Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the National Police Agency, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and contributing through service as a foundation committee member on the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications. Dr. Sakauchi has done much to promote scholarly research in Japan through leadership positions across a wide range of areas including electronics, informatics and communications. For example, he served as Vice President of the University of Tokyo, as Director General of Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, as Director General of National Institute of Informatics, and as President of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.
He has also made significant contributions to the development of the IEICE through his work as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEICE Transactions, as Chairman of the Functional Graphic Information System Study Group, as Vice Chairman of the Information Systems Research Group, and other responsible positions. In addition, Dr. Sakauchi has helped to promote scholarly research as Chairman of the IEEE Technical Committee on Industrial Electronics Society Machine Vision, as Director of the GIS Association of Japan, Geographic Information Systems, as Director of the Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of Japan, as Director of the Japan Institute of Printed Circuit, and by serving on the organizing committees of countless conferences and symposiums held in Japan and around the world including the Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia, and the IAPR IEEE International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition. Dr. Sakauchi's achievements have been widely recognized, both in Japan and abroad, with many commendations and awards have been bestowed on him including the IEICE's Best Paper Award, IEICE Fellowship, IPSJ Contribution Award, IPSJ Fellowship, the Radio Day MIC Certificate of Commendation, the Ericsson Telecommunications Award, and the French Legion d'honneur (Chevalier) Award. For his outstanding achievements, as described above, to the fields of electronics, informatics and communication engineering through contributions in geographic information systems, multi-dimensional data structures, multimedia, and ITS technology, we believe that Dr. Masao Sakauchi is a worthy recipient of the IEICE Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award.
