Dr. Fumio Koyama graduated from the Department of Physics and Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology (nowInstitute of Science Tokyo) in 1980, and received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at the same university in 1985. In the same year, he joined the Precision Engineering Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology as an Associate Researcher and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1988 and Professor in 2000. He subsequently became the first Director of the Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research of Science and Technology, Institute of Innovative Research, at the same university in 2016, and then Director-General of the Institute of Innovative Research in 2018, bearing the heavy responsibility of strengthening the university's research capabilities. Since 2023, he has been Professor Emeritus, Director of the VCSEL Photonics Research Unit of the Institute of Innovative Research (Institute of Integrated Research at present), and Specially Appointed Professor at the same university.

He was the first in the world to realize continuous room-temperature operation of surface emitting lasers, which are now widely used in data center networks and face recognition systems for mobile terminals. Subsequently, he proposed a method for integrating a surface emitting laser and an optical functional device laterally, and realized various novel optical devices, such as wavelength tunable surface emitting lasers, ultra-high-speed surface emitting lasers, and non-mechanical high-resolution beam scanners, thereby laying the foundation for the development of these devices and making significant contributions to the progress of optoelectronics. Some of his research results have been put to practical use by joint research companies, resulting in the world's first practical application of a high-definition color printer equipped with a surface emitting laser array. Thus, he has contributed to the industrial application of surface emitting lasers. These achievements have opened up new possibilities for surface emitting lasers in the fields of next-generation ultra-high speed, high-capacity optical interconnects and information communications.

In terms of education, Dr. Koyama has trained more than 100 graduate students over the past 35 years, including more than 40 doctoral students. From 2007, he served as Center Leader for the "Photonics Integrated Core," a global COE program under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, contributing to the fostering of advanced doctoral students. In addition, as Project Leader for the Beyond 5G Functional Realization Program at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) – a program in which 10 organizations from industry and academia participated – he led research and development for Next-Generation Edge Cloud Computing Infrastructure.

In recognition of these research achievements, he received from the IEICE the Shinohara Memorial Young Investigators Award in 1990, Best Paper Awards in 1990, 1994, 2002, and 2007, the Electronics Society Award in 2006, the title of Fellow in 2009, the Achievement Award in 2019, and the Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award in 2024. He also received numerous accolades from other organizations, including: the Marubun Science Award and the Journal of the Japan Society of Applied Physics Award in 1998; the Ichimura Science Award for Meritorious Achievement in 2004; the Commendation for Science and Technology from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2007; the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, an IEEE Fellowship, and a Fellowship in the Japan Society of Applied Physics in 2008; the Microoptics Award in 2011; the Applied Physics Society of Japan Award for Achievement in Photonic and Electronic Integration Technology in 2012; the Tokyo Prefecture Award for Distinguished Service for Technology Promotion in 2015; the Ichimura Industrial Contribution Award in 2016; the Sakurai Kenjiro Memorial Award from the Japan Optoelectronics Industry and Technology Development Association in 2017; the Okawa Award in 2018; the Optica Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award in 2019; an Optica Fellowship in 2020; and the Hirose Award and the IEEE Nick Holonyak, Jr. Medal in 2024. In 2025, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering (2,487 U.S. members and 336 foreign members, including 22 Japanese members).

He has held important positions in engineering societies, such as the roles of President of the IEICE's Electronics Society, Editor of the Journal of the IEICE, Chairman of the Technical Committee on Optoelectronics in the IEICE, Director of the IEEE Tokyo Section, and Director of the IEEE Photonics Society.

As outlined above, Dr. Ogawa's activities in the IEICE and related engineering societies both in Japan and abroad, as well as his contributions to the development of electronics, information and communication technology, have been extremely distinguished, and I am confident that he is worthy of an honorary membership of the IEICE.