News

Comments from the Awardees / Honorary Professor Kenichi Iga

　The Japan Academy Prize was established in 1911 and has been awarded annually without interruption ever since. This year marks the 116th presentation; my certificate bears the number 830 and features the handwritten signature of Japan Academy President Ryoji Noyori. I felt deeply honored to receive this award, as I have benefited from Dr. Noyori’s guidance since 2001—the year he won the Nobel Prize and I retired from Tokyo Institute of Technology to join the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as an executive director. I also enjoyed a particularly close relationship with his younger brother, Tatsuhiko, who—like me—graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1963 and served as the head of the Hyogo Prefecture chapter of the Kuramae Kogyokai (the university’s alumni association).
　According to my research, there have been thirteen recipients from our university to date, and I had always regarded this as a highly prestigious and difficult award to attain. The last recipients from the former Research Laboratory of Precision Machinery and Electronics were Professors Issaku Koga and Takashi Nakata. At the award ceremony, upon the arrival of His Majesty the Emperor, everyone stood as the national anthem was performed by a string quartet of faculty members from the Tokyo University of the Arts. Each recipient was called by name to the stage, where the certificate and medal were personally presented by the Institute Director in the presence of His Majesty. Having undergone lumbar spine surgery in 2023, I was concerned about my weakened legs—specifically regarding navigating the ramp in the aisle and the steps leading up to the stage—but I managed to complete the movements successfully and felt a great sense of relief.
　During my tenure, forty doctoral students—including about forty under Professor Koyama—as well as numerous master’s students and undergraduates conducting their senior research projects, have completed their studies. While this award recognizes research spanning from the realization of surface-emitting lasers to their practical applications, I view it as a tribute to the collective efforts of the staff, graduate students, corporate researchers, and administrative assistants who worked alongside me.
　Research into new devices was not easily recognized by the academic or industrial communities, and it took a long time to advance to the stages of application and practical implementation. Nevertheless, many companies supported our research through charitable donations. Counting from the initial spark of the surface-emitting laser, next year marks exactly fifty years. Iga and Koyama believe that the reason we have been able to conduct research for so long is due to the existence of the Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research of Science and Technology (formerly the Precision and Intelligence Laboratory). It is a privilege to be able to contribute a comment to its public relations magazine.
　Iga and Koyama would also like to express our profound gratitude to Honorary Professor Yasuharu Suematsu. He served as our supervising professor from undergraduate days through graduate school, guiding us in the pursuit of single-mode semiconductor lasers, and later provided us with the opportunity to pursue a research career at this university. We received invaluable advice from him at key milestones throughout our research journey.

Honorary Professor / Specially Appointed Professor Fumio Koyama

　I am deeply honored to receive the Japan Academy Prize, one of the highest distinctions in Japanese academia.
This award recognizes nearly half a century of research on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), beginning with Professor Kenichi Iga’s concept, followed by our joint achievement of continuous-wave operation at room temperature in 1988, and the subsequent advances in performance and practical applications.
　Over the past 41 years, I have been privileged to pursue VCSEL research with the generous support of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Institute of Science Tokyo, Precision & Intelligence Lab., FIRST, numerous collaborators, and many outstanding graduate students and alumni.
　I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my mentor, Honorary Professor Yasuharu Suematsu, Science Tokyo, whose guidance and encouragement laid the foundation of my research career.
　Following the award ceremony, I also had the great honor of attending the Imperial Palace tea reception, where meeting Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, together with other members of the Imperial Family at close range, was a truly unforgettable privilege and one of the most memorable moments of my academic career.
　Today, VCSELs have become key photonic devices supporting high-speed optical communications in AI datacenters, 3D sensing, LiDAR, and many other applications.
Encouraged by this recognition, I will continue to promote the practical implementation of photonic technologies and contribute to the further advancement of optoelectronics, while fostering the next generation of researchers and engineers.

Honorary Professor Kenichi Iga	Honorary Professor / Specially Appointed Professor Fumio Koyama
Award Ceremony （Photo: The Japan Academy）

Prof. Fumio Koyama Research Results

• • Fumio Koyama received 2019 Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award
  • Fumio Koyama received 27th Okawa Prize
  • Fumio Koyama received IEEE Nick Holonyak Jr. Medal for Semiconductor Optoelectronic Technologies
  • Fumio Koyama received the 4th Hirose Prize

Contact

Honorary Professor / Specially Appointed Professor Fumio Koyama（Biomedical Engineering Research Core）
http://vcsel-www.pi.titech.ac.jp/