2018.09.19
Fumio Koyama to receive 27th Okawa Prize
The Okawa foundation for Information and Telecommunications announced that Prof. Fumio Koyama, Director-General, Institute of Innovative Research, Professor, Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research of Science and Technology, wins the 2018 Okawa Prize. The Okawa Prize is intended to pay tribute to and make public recognition of persons who have made outstanding contributions to the research, technological development and business in the information and telecommunications fields, internationally.
Prof. Koyama is awarded “For seminal contributions to VCSEL photonics in proposing high speed modulation and beam steering capability toward advanced optical communications and optical sensing.”
The 2018 awards ceremony will take place in Tokyo on November 7.
- Prize winner: Prof. Fumio Koyama
- Conference: The Okawa Foundation
- Prize: The Okawa Prize Winner 2018
- Award date: September 19, 2018
Comments from Prof. Fumio Koyama
I am honored to be considered by the Okawa Foundation as a recipient of this very prestigious prize. It has been over 40 years since Professor Emeritus Kenichi Iga invented the VCSEL as a new type of semiconductor laser. Since then, VCSELs have been widely used for various applications such as datacenter networks, high-resolution laser printers, and 3D optical sensing in smartphones. These fields have made a great impact on the Internet of Things, and will continue to develop rapidly. I would like to thank my mentors — Yasuharu Suematsu and Kenichi Iga — and all my fellow researchers, my graduate students, and all those who contributed to this achievement. This recognition will further stimulate and invigorate my research efforts in the field. Finally, I am delighted to hear that my friend of many years, Dr. Chang-Hasnain from University of California, Berkeley, has also been selected to receive this prize in 2018.
