Hiroshi Inose

Biography

Hiroshi lnose was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 5, 1927. He received the B.E. and D.E. degrees from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1948 and 1955, respectively. Dr. Inose was a Professor of Electronic Engineering at the University of Tokyo from July 1961 to March 1987, and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering as well as the Director of the Computer Center. Since April 1987 , he has been the Director General of the National Center for Science Information Systems, the Japanese Ministry of Education. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Inose has gained an international reputation for his invention of the time-slot interchange system. This system, which was invented during one of Dr. Inose's extended visits to AT&T Bell Laboratories as a consultant, became an essential component in the first Bell System digital switch and has become a key technology for digital telephone switches and integrated service digital networks in use today throughout the world. For this and other works which have been concerned mainly with digital communications technology and road traffic control, Dr. Inose has received 27 awards including the Order of Culture, the Second Marconi International Fellowship, and the Japan Academy Prize. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Royal Academy of Engineering (U.K.). Dr. Inose was selected as the Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese Government and was made an honorary member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Dr. Inose served the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the Chairman of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (1984-87), and then as the Chairman of the Committee for Information, Computer and Communication Policy (1988-90). He also IS served as the President of the Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers of Japan (1985-86), and the Information Processing Society of Japan (1981-83). Dr. Inose has been involved in a number of Japanese governmental activities, especially in the area of communication and information processing. He is currently the Chairman of the Industrial Technology Council of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

During leaves of absence, he was an Associate at the University of Pennsylvania and a Consultant to the Bell Telephone Laboratories (1956-58); a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan (1969); a Visiting Professor at the Rheinische-Westfalische Technische Hochschule (1974); and a Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (1981).

Dr. Inose has published more than 150 articles in Japanese and international professional journals. He also has published several books in English including An Introduction to Digital Integrated Communications Systems, Information Technology and Civilization (jointly with John R. Pierce); Road Traffic Control (jointly with Takashi Hamada); and Creativity and Culture (jointly with Stephen Jay Gould).

He has been married to Mariko Inose since 1960 and resides in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.

Dr. Inose won the 1994 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal 'For pioneering contributions to digital switching and modulation, and for leadership in international telecommunications.' Dr. Inose passed away on 11 October 2000.