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| June 15, 2006 |
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| Hitachi Fellow Dr. Kiyoo Itoh to be awarded IEEE medal |
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| One of the first Japanese researchers to receive the Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal |
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Tokyo, June 15, 2006 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT / TSE: 6501) today announced that Hitachi Fellow, Dr. Itou Kiyoo is nominated as a co-recipient of the 2006 IEEE*1 Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal. The IEEE Honors Ceremony will be held in Minneapolis, U.S.A. on Saturday, 24th June. The award is in recognition "for pioneering contributions to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell structures and architecture," and is shared with Professor Sunami Hideo of the Research Center for Nanodevices and Systems at Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, and Professor Koyanagi Mitsumasa of the Department of Bioengineering and Robotics at Tohoku University, Sendai.
The IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 2002, to recognize "outstanding contributions to material and device science technology, including practical application" and is named in honor of Professor Jun-ichi Nishizawa who is currently the President of Tokyo Metropolitan University (formerly President of Tohoku University), for his "lifetime of outstanding achievements, ranging from fundamental semiconductor materials and devices through optical communication and power systems."
This year's award highlights research conducted at the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. during the 1970s - 1980s, namely, Dr. Sunami's development of the "trench capacitor cell", Dr. Koyanagi's development of the "stack capacitor cell" and Dr. Itoh's development of the "folded data-line cell". These fundamental DRAM memory cell structures and architectures changed the design of DRAM memory cells, and have been employed widely in almost all DRAMs since the 1980's.
Dr. Itoh's career has been dedicated to semiconductor R&D. Apart from his work as a corporate researcher, he has contributed to the progress of semiconductor technology through various academic positions both in Japan and overseas; as a Visiting MacKay Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A., in 1994, a Visiting Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1995, and a Consulting Professor at Stanford University, U.S.A., from 2000-2002, among others.
 Comment from Dr. Itoh |
The IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal came as a surprise but it is definitely the jewel in the crown of my career, and I feel deeply honored. My career at the frontline of semiconductor research spans close to 35 years. On reflection, it's been a career filled with challenges, success and to be honest, failure, as well. My first taste of real success came with the 64 Kbit DRAM. This made me realize that "the true value of research is not the "struggle", but the joy it gives through discovery and creation". This "joy in research" exists in our everyday struggles: the "joy & relief" when a small solution is born; the "joy & excitement" of polishing that idea into something concrete; and the "joy & satisfaction" of watching that idea becoming part of a product useful to society; and finally, although it is only the icing on the cake, the "joy & humility", felt when others recognize the work. And today, I would not trade this "joy of creation" for anything, and feel lucky to have chosen the path of a researcher.
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for the support and cooperation I have received over the many years from my talented research colleagues at Hitachi Central Research Laboratory; the enlightened managers who allowed me to pursue my research over 8 generations of DRAM, and to my wife, Kyoko, all without whom today would not have been possible.
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| About Hitachi, Ltd. |
| Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com. |
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| *1) |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. |
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The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. Through its 365,000 members in 150 countries, the society is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world's literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 900 active industry standards. The organization also sponsors or co-sponsors more than 300 international technical conferences each year. |
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| Information contained in this news release is current as of the date of the press announcement, but may be subject to change without prior notice. |
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