Adjunct Professor Begins University Presidency

Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami, an adjunct professor at the College of Optical Sciences since 1990, commenced his term as the 30th president of the University of Tokyo in Japan on April 1.

Kuwata-Gonokami collaborates with professor Nasser Peyghambarian on semiconductor nonlinear optics and Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic and semiconducting systems. He has also worked with Rolf Binder, Galina Khitrova, Stephan W. Koch, Nai-Hang Kwong and the late Hyatt M. Gibbs on optoelectronics, ultrafast phenomena, and physics in bulk and microstructured semiconductors. Notably, he led a 10-year international ERATO project in the mid-1990s that supported a partnership with OSC researchers and resulted in a number of publications and conference presentations.

In a message on the University of Tokyo website, Kuwata-Gonokami names among his priorities creating a "global base for knowledge collaboration" by developing new disciplines and promoting cooperation between industry, government and academia.

Kuwata-Gonokami is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society (OSA).