Dr. Yasuhiko Arakawa received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1980, and immediately joined the Institute of Industrial Science, also at the University of Tokyo, as a lecturer. He was promoted to Associate Professor the following year and to Professor in 1993. He retired in 2018. During this period, he also served as a Professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and as Director of the Institute for Nano Quantum Information Electronics, both at the University of Tokyo. Currently, he continues his research activities as a specially-appointed professor at the University of Tokyo and also serves as a specially-appointed professor at Kyoto University.

In 1982, Dr. Arakawa pioneered the concept of "quantum dots", which completely confine electrons in semiconductors, and their application to lasers. Since then, he has developed semiconductor quantum dot formation technology to realize the quantum dot laser he proposed and has made significant contributions to its practical application through industry-academia collaborative research. Furthermore, he was the first to point out that quantum dot lasers, which feature high temperature stability and high light return tolerance, were suitable for use as a light source in photonics-electronic convergence technology, thereby opening up the possibility of their use in optical circuits. In addition, he has undertaken research into both quantum dot lasers that use many quantum dots in the active layer and extreme light sources that use a single quantum dot. He has been responsible for many important achievements in the field of nano quantum photonics, including the implementation of a single quantum dot laser and a single-photon generator in the optical communication wavelength band and the application of these devices to long-distance quantum cryptographic communications. At the same time, he has conducted extensive basic research into optoelectronic properties in low-dimensional semiconductor structures, such as quantum wells and quantum dots. Along with his proposal of the quantum dot laser, one of his major achievements was his observation of the cavity exciton polariton effect in semiconductor microcavities, which led to the development of a major field in quantum electronics, known as “solid-state resonator quantum electrodynamics.”

His research achievements have been highly acclaimed internationally. He has received many prestigious domestic and international awards, including the Fujiwara Award (2007), the Medal with Purple Ribbon (2009), the IEEE David Sarnoff Award (2009), the C&C Award (2010), the Heinrich Welker Award (2011), the Japan Academy Award (2017), the IEEE Jun-Ichi Nishizawa Medal (2017), and the URSI Balthasar Van der Pol Gold Medal (2023). He has been elected as a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He has also led a number of large-scale national projects, driving the development of related fields and training many young researchers. He has served on numerous government committees and in important positions in academic societies both in Japan and abroad, including as Director of the Third Department of the Science Council of Japan, President of the International Commission on Optics, Director of the Optical and Quantum Leap Flagship Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Research Supervisor of JST-CREST. He has thus made significant contributions to the advancement of science and engineering across a wide range of fields, as well as to the development of academic societies and industry. For these academic achievements and contributions to academia and industry, he was honored in Japan in 2023 as a Person of Cultural Merit.

As described above, Dr. Arakawa’s contributions to advances in electronics, and information and communications, especially in the field of photonics and quantum electronics, have been extremely significant, and we recommend him as the IEICE's Honorary Member.