Pender Award

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

For immediate release
Contact: Jon Caroulis
November 2, 1993
(215) 898-6460


HIROSHI INOSE, ONE OF JAPAN'S TOP LEADERS
IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND POLICY, TO RECEIVE AWARD, SPEAK AT PENN


PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Dr. Hiroshi Inose, one of the most influential leaders
of scientific research and academic policy in Japan, will be honored with
the University of  Pennsylvania's Pender Award for outstanding
contributions to society in a ceremony here Friday, Nov. 5th.


        An electrical engineer by training, Dr. Inose is spearheading
Japan's efforts to build a national information highway through the
government's National Center for Science Information Systems. He also
chairs several key committees of the MITI, Japan's major trade
organization.


        In addition to receiving the Pender Award, Dr. Inose will give a
lecture titled "Japan's Contributions through Science and Technology. "In a
speech last April, Inose touched on the role Japan will play in the
post-cold War world and how the United States can redirect its military
technology prowess into civilian industries:


 * The magnitude of problems that the United States faces as it tries to
deal with its enormous overseas debts and fiscal deficits should not
obscure the stark reality of its gigantic economic and technological power.
The NAFTA involving Canada and Mexico will definitely help revitalize the
regional economy.


 * The Gulf War has also demonstrated the "spin-off" effects of
civilian high tech developments on military application. The sheer range
and variety of high tech products diverted from civilian to military uses,
such as HDTV cameras, super LSI memory chips, infrared sensors, etc., may
invite a plausible case for controlling the distribution of civilian high
tech developments.


* The  remarkable progress in civilian technology has been due in no small
measure to the fact that Japan and West Germany, vanquished in World War II
and effectively deprived of military power and munitions industries,
concentrated resources for technological innovation in the civilian sector
and enhanced their technological prowess in the marketplace.  Should
military powers fail to face up to the realities, they would be bound to
decline and fall in the long run.


        Dr. Inose has has also served as chairman of Japan's Committee for
Scientific and Technological Policy and the Committee for Information,
Computer and Communications Policy of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development. He received his Ph.D. in electrical
engineering in 1955 from the University of Tokyo, and was later Dean of the
Faculty of Engineering ther. Dr. Inose has received the Japan Academy Prize
and the IEEE Award in Communication. He is a foreign associate of the US
National Academy of Science and the American Philosophical Society .


        The Pender Award is named after Harold Pender, the first Dean of
the University's Moore School of Electrical Engineering, founded in 1923.
The award is given to "an outstanding member of the engineering profession
who has achieved distinction by significant contributions to society."
Previous winners have been John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr.,
inventors of ENIAC, and US Navy Adm. Hyman G. Rickover.
###
Note: Dr. Inose's speech will be held in Alumni Hall at Penn's Towne
Building, 33rd & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, at 11 am. It is free and
open to the public.