Kazuo Inamori, Alfred University School of Engineering benefactor, passes away
Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori, for whom the Alfred University Inamori School of Engineering is named, passed away on Wednesday, August 24, at his home in Kyoto, Japan. He was 90 years old.
Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori, for whom the Alfred University Inamori School of Engineering is named, passed away on Wednesday, August 24, at his home in Kyoto, Japan. He was 90 years old.
Inamori, one of Japan’s most respected business executives, was founder of ceramics and electronics manufacturer Kyocera Corporation. Inamori served as president and chair of Kyocera— which he founded as Kyoto Ceramics in 1959—until his retirement in 1997. At the time of his death, he was the firm’s chair emeritus.
In 1984, following the deregulation of Japan’s telecommunications industry, Inamori founded telecommunications firm DDI Corporation, which in 2000 merged with KDD Corporation and IDO Corporation to form KDDI Corporation. In 2010, Inamori became chair of Japan Airlines (now Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.) and led efforts to rebuild the company’s operations after bankruptcy. He was an honorary adviser for both KDDI and Japan Airlines.
Alfred University’s School of Engineering was renamed the Inamori School of Engineering in 2005. It remains the only time in Alfred University’s history that a school or college at the institution has been named. The decision to name the school for Inamori arose from a $10 million gift from the Kyocera Corporation in the company founder’s honor.
The gift created an endowment for the School of Engineering to be used to support four faculty members in nanotechnology research. Current Inamori professors at Alfred University are Scott Misture, Stephen Tidrow, S.K. Sundaram, and Yiquan Wu. Additionally, the University created the Inamori-Kyocera Fine Ceramic Museum, located in Binns-Merrill Hall, to showcase the advances made by Kyocera Corporation in the field of materials.
“With the opening of the Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University, it is my hope that Alfred University and the Kyocera Group can together be on the cutting edge in biomaterials, photonics and nanomaterials,” Inamori remarked at the Oct. 24, 2005, ceremony dedicating the Inamori School of Engineering.
“Fine ceramics have a broad range of excellent properties and characteristics that give them many possibilities,” he said. Together, Alfred University and Kyocera will “continue to further development of new products in the 21st century to solve the energy and global environmental struggles society and mankind are facing.”
In comments after the formal ceremony dedicating the Inamori School of Engineering, Inamori recalled that Kyocera began its manufacturing operations in the United States in 1971. Among the first employees the firm hired were graduates of the ceramic engineering program at Alfred University. “They were very capable and soon played a critical role in manufacturing, research, and development,” he said.
Alfred University had previously awarded Inamori an honorary Doctor of Science degree, in 1988, recognizing him for his accomplishments as a scientist and engineer, and also for his creation of the Kyoto Prizes, which recognize the achievement of individuals who have contributed to the betterment of humankind through technology, science, and the humanities. Notable past Kyoto Prize winners include linguist Noam Chomsky, astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort, composer John Cage, primatologist Jane Goodall, and artist Roy Lichtenstein.
Eleven years later, in 1999, Inamori delivered the John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture, an honor reserved for those who make outstanding contributions to the field of ceramic engineering and materials science.