Masatoshi Suzuki Receives 2025 John Tyndall Award
About Optica
12 December 2024
Masatoshi Suzuki Receives 2025 John Tyndall Award
WASHINGTON — The modern internet relies on high-speed optical fiber communications. Whether data are coming over the last mile to the home on fiber, or continents are connected over optical fiber cables on the sea floor, speed, data density, and signal strength are critical. Professor Masatoshi Suzuki has developed some of the most important foundational technologies that enable modern optical communications.
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, and the IEEE Photonics Society have named Masatoshi Suzuki, Chitose Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, the 2025 John Tyndall Award recipient.
Suzuki is recognized for pioneering and seminal contributions to large capacity long-haul optical communication systems including integrated light sources, dispersion-managed soliton, WDM submarine cable systems, and spatial multiplexing.
“Masatoshi Suzuki’s outstanding work revolutionized optical communications,” said Gerd Leuchs, Optica 2024 President. “His achievements have allowed us to keep pace with the ever-growing demands to connect faster and at higher capacities.”
Perry Shum, IEEE Photonics Society President added, "Professor Suzuki's contributions continue to influence the future of optical communication. His dedication to advancing technology and fostering innovation has left an indelible mark on the field, inspiring future generations of researchers and engineers."
The award, one of the top honors in the fiber optics community, is named for John Tyndall, a 19th-century scientist who was the first to demonstrate the phenomenon of total internal reflection. It recognizes an individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing technical or leadership contributions to fiber optic technology.
Corning Incorporated, one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science, sponsors the award as part of its commitment to fiber optic technology innovation. The award consists of a specially commissioned glass sculpture, a scroll, and an honorarium. Optica, IEEE Photonics Society, and Corning will jointly present the award at this year’s Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition, the world's premier event for optical communications and networking professionals. The conference will take place from 30 March – 2 April 2025 in San Francisco, California, USA.
Suzuki received B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He joined KDD (currently KDDI), Tokyo, Japan, in 1984. He served as R&D Fellow of KDDI Corporation, Executive Vice President of KDDI R&D Laboratories, Inc. and President of KDDI Foundation. He is currently the Vice President and a professor at Chitose Institute of Science and Technology and a visiting professor of Waseda University.
He demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field of terrestrial optical networks, such as nation-wide all optical networks based on GMPLS-controlled optical cross connects, high-capacity WDM PON and over 10Tbit/s high-capacity radio over fiber for beyond 5G mobile networks. His current research interest includes high-speed free-space communications for non-terrestrial networks using high power PCSELs and Silicon photonics for optical computing.
During his time at KDDI, Suzuki made seminal contributions to the sustained progress of long-haul high-capacity optical communication systems through his pioneering and innovative research on optical devices, systems and networks. Key results of this work included the first demonstration of the semiconductor integrated circuit, EML (Electroabosorption Modulator integrated Laser), required for high-speed optical communications, and the invention of dispersion managed soliton which enabled high-speed long-haul optical transmission. He demonstrated the first high-speed low-chirp EA modulators and EMLs in 1985 and 1987, respectively. The EML was the first semiconductor optical IC realized after 29 years from the first electronic IC. His pioneering research has led to the current worldwide deployment of EMLs.
In 1995, Suzuki proposed and demonstrated the dispersion managed solitons, which was a newly founded physical phenomenon of stable pulse propagation over nonlinear fiber enabling high-speed long-haul optical communication, e.g. 40Gbit/s over 10,000km transmission. The dispersion managed soliton is a soliton-like chirped Gaussian pulse and a periodically stationary solution of nonlinear Schrödinger equation of general dispersion managed nonlinear fibers. With the technology, he and the international team of ATT-SSI (later TE-SubCom) and KDDI groups succeeded in the first demonstration of 10 Gbit/s based WDM transmission over 10,000km. This was later extended to 1Tbit/s over transoceanic transmission with advanced dispersion managed fibers. These technologies have been applied to most commercial Tera bit/s class transpacific and transatlantic submarine cables including Japan-US and TAT-14 as well as Asian regional submarine cable systems. As a result, a 200-fold increase in capacity for transoceanic submarine cable systems, underpinning the global Internet and the telecommunications infrastructure and supporting its growth, was realized within 10-years.
He has co-authored 5 books, more than 420 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, and produced 120 registered International Patents. He is a Fellow of Optica, IEEE and a Fellow and Honorary member of IEICE. He has received several additional awards including IEICE Milestone Awards, Minister Awards from MEXT and METI, Kenjiro Sakurai Memorial Prize, Hisoka Maejima Award, Medal with purple ribbon from Emperor in Japan, Ichimura Prize in Industry, Telecom System Technical Award, and the C&C Prize.
About IEEE Photonics Society
As a vital part of IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, we engage in photonics research, development, design, and manufacturing. The IEEE Photonics Society forms the hub of a vibrant technical community of more than 100,000 professionals dedicated to transforming breakthroughs in quantum physics into the devices, systems and products to revolutionize our daily lives. By organizing, contributing to, and participating in technical conferences, and journal publications, the society provides our members with professional growth opportunities while supporting local chapters and student activities around the world. Learn more at https://ieeephotonics.org/
About Corning Incorporated
Corning is one of the world's leading innovators in materials science, with a 170-year track record of life-changing inventions. Corning applies its unparalleled expertise in glass science, ceramic science, and optical physics along with its deep manufacturing and engineering capabilities to develop category-defining products that transform industries and enhance people's lives. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in RD&E, a unique combination of material and process innovation, and deep, trust-based relationships with customers who are global leaders in their industries. Corning's capabilities are versatile and synergistic, which allows the company to evolve to meet changing market needs, while also helping our customers capture new opportunities in dynamic industries. Today, Corning's markets include optical communications, mobile consumer electronics, display, automotive, solar, semiconductors, and life sciences. Learn more at www.corning.com
About Optica
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement. Discover more at: Optica.org
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