 |
Details of achievements HERE
-
For Pioneering Contributions to Conception and Development of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and Leadership in Its Practical Application
TOKYO Sept. 9, 2025; The Honda Foundation has chosen Dr. Kenichi Iga (honorary professor on the Institute of Science Tokyo and 18th president of former Tokyo Institute of Technology), because the recipient of the 2025 Honda Prize. The worldwide award in science and know-how honors his pioneering work in conceiving the Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and his contributions to advancing basic analysis and sensible purposes. The basis is a public curiosity included basis established by Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and his youthful brother Benjiro.
In 1980, the Honda Foundation established the Honda Prize to acknowledge analysis achievements that contribute to “the creation of a truly humane civilization.” Foreseeing the brand new potential of ecotechnology,*1 the Honda Prize is Japan’s first worldwide award for scientific and technological achievements throughout a variety of tutorial fields, encompassing your entire analysis course of from discovery and invention to utility and widespread utilization.
In 2025, the forty sixth Honda Prize might be awarded to Dr. Iga for his conception of VCSEL in 1977 and his pioneering contributions to its growth and sensible purposes. The award ceremony will happen on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, on November 17, 2025. In addition to the prize medal and diploma, Dr. Iga will obtain 10 million yen in prize cash.
*1 Ecotechnology: Human-friendly philosophy based on science and know-how and designed to harmonize the pure and human environments and discover resolutions to social points, adopting a strategy that suggests one thing extra than simply “being friendly to the Earth,” which is the which means often related to the phrase “ecology.”
What is VCSEL
VCSEL, with a vertical resonator, is extra compact than typical Edge Emitting Laser (EEL), permitting dense integration, secure single-wavelength oscillation, mass manufacturing, steady wavelength tuning and low energy consumption. These options drive improvements in optoelectronics, together with high-speed knowledge communication, fiber optics, 3D facial recognition, pc mouses and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) techniques for autonomous autos.
When Dr. Iga first proposed VCSEL, his idea was met with skepticism from each academia and business due to issues about its feasibility. However, via persistent analysis and steady advocacy, Dr. Iga and his staff steadily established world recognition for this modern know-how. In 1988, his collaborator, Dr. Fumio Koyama, later a professor at former Tokyo Institute of Technology (now the Institute of Science Tokyo), achieved the primary room-temperature continuous-wave operation of a VCSEL—a decisive step towards its commercialization. Since the late Nineteen Nineties, VCSELs have been industrialized worldwide, remodeling trendy optoelectronics and shaping quite a few industries.
SOURCE Honda Foundation