2019 Buessem Award Recipient

Kenji Uchino, one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators, is Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers, Materials Research Institute and Professor of EE and MatSE, Distinguished Honors Faculty of Schreyer Honors College at The Penn State University. He was the Founder and Senior Vice President & CTO of Micromechatronics Inc., State College, PA from 2004 till 2010.  He was also Associate Director (Global Technology) at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office from 2010 till 2014. After his Ph. D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, he became Research Associate (1976) at this university. Then, he joined Sophia University, Japan as Associate Professor in 1985. He was recruited from The Penn State University in 1991. Uchino is a Fellow of American Ceramic Society since 1997, a Fellow of IEEE since 2012, and also is a recipient of 30 awards, including Wilhelm R. Buessem Award from the Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, The Penn State University (2019), Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE UFFC Society (2018), International Ceramic Award from Global Academy of Ceramics (2016), IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award (2013), Inventor Award from Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, Virginia Tech (2011), SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) Smart Product Implementation Award (2007), R&D 100 Award (2007), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Adaptive Structures Prize (2005), Best Movie Memorial Award at Japan Scientific Movie Festival (1989), and the Best Paper Award from Japanese Society of Oil/Air Pressure Control (1987).