WASHINGTON, Dec. 9–The Optical Society (OSA) and the IEEE Photonics Society today announced that Kazuro Kikuchi of the University of Tokyo in Japan is the recipient of the 2014 John Tyndall Award. Kikuchi is being recognized for “for pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding of coherent detection techniques.” The award, one of the top honors in the fiber optics community, will be presented to Kikuchi during the plenary session of the 2014 Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference taking place in San Francisco March 9-13.
Kikuchi received a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University of Tokyo. In 1979, he joined their Department of Electronic Engineering and is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems. Kikuchi has also worked at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the Department of Frontier Informatics, and Bell Communications Research. He presently serves on the board of directors for Alnair Labs Corporation.
Throughout his career, Kikuchi’s research has focused on optical fiber communications including optical devices and systems. He is currently involved in coherent optical communication systems that realize multi-level modulation formats with digital signal processing.
“Kazuro’s continued leadership in revolutionizing optical fiber communications has resulted in transmission speeds that were once unheard of,” said OSA CEO Elizabeth Rogan. “The Tyndall Award was specifically designed to recognize the results of this caliber and we are honored to present the award to Kazuro for his momentous achievements.”
Kikuchi has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, 250 conference papers, several book chapters, and three books. He is a Fellow of the IEEE Photonics Society, a member of OSA, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE). He is the recipient of numerous awards including the IEICE Achievement Award, Ichimura Award, Japan IBM Science Prize, Sakurai Memorial Award, Hattori Hokosho Prize, Ericsson Telecommunications Award, Shida Rinzaburo Prize, Japan’s Prime Minister Award for the promotion of academy-industry collaboration, and the NEC C&C Prize.
“Kazuro’s development of coherent optical communications technologies to help satisfy the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth is an important breakthrough to optical communications.” said IEEE Photonics Society Executive Director Rich Linke. “OFC is the ideal venue to recognize Kazuro’s invaluable contribution to optical fiber communications as the entire community will be in attendance.”
The John Tyndall Award is named for the 19th century scientist who was the first to demonstrate the phenomenon of internal reflection. First presented in 1987, the Tyndall Award recognizes an individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing technical or leadership contributions to fiber optics technology. Corning, Inc. endows the award, a prize check and a glass sculpture that represents the concept of total internal reflection. The award is co-sponsored by OSA and the IEEE Photonics Society.