Dr. Masatoshi Suzuki completed the Doctoral course at the Graduate School of Engineering at Hokkaido University in 1984, and joined Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co., Ltd. (currently KDDI CORPORATION). He was appointed as a Research and Development Fellow of KDDI CORPORATION in 2007, Managing Director and Executive Vice President of KDDI R&D Laboratories, Inc. in 2011, President of KDDI Foundation in 2018, Visiting Professor of Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 2022, Vice President and Professor of Chitose Institute of Science and Technologies in 2024 and continues to this day. During this period, he led the development of high-capacity optical communication systems through a number of world-leading pioneering research and practical applications ranging from optical devices to systems and networks. He has made outstanding contributions to the academic development of optical communication engineering and the realization of the global information and communication network that supports today's widespread use of the Internet. Key results include the first demonstration of the semiconductor photonic integrated circuit, EML (Electroabosorption Modulator integrated Laser), the invention of dispersion managed soliton, new physical phenomenon of stable pulse propagation over nonlinear fiber, and its application to Tera bit/s class WDM transatlantic and transpacific submarine cable systems including Japan-US and TAT-14 as well as Asian regional submarine cable systems. He is a co-founder of the EXAT Initiative focusing on spatial multiplexing and has led the world's first demonstrations of the transoceanic multicore fiber transmission with exceeding 1 Exa bit/s-km capacity-distance product and the highest fiber capacity of over 10 Pbit/s. Besides these works, he has demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field of terrestrialoptical networks, such as nation-wide all optical networks based on GMPLS-controlled optical cross connects, high-capacity WDM PON and over 10 Tbit/s radio over fiber for 6G mobile networks. Through these works, he has co-authored 5 books and 440 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and produced 120 registered International Patents. He has received various awards, such as Medal with purple ribbon from Emperor in Japan, IEEE/OPTICA John Tyndall Award, C&C Prize, Minister Awards from MEXT and METI in Japan and others. He was an elected member of Bord of Governors of IEEE Photonics Society, Associate Editor of IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, and the Auditor of IEICE. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow Emeritus of OPTICA, and a Fellow and Honorary member of IEICE. Itsuro Morita received B.E., M.E. and Dr. Eng. degrees in electronics engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 1990, 1992, and 2005, respectively. He is a professor at Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University. Before joining Waseda University in April 2022, he was a principal researcher at KDDI Research. At KDDI, he was engaged in research on long-distance and high-speed optical communication systems and photonic network technologies. In 1998, he was on leave at Stanford University, California. He authored and co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, including several invited papers, book chapters, and patents in the field of fiber-optic communication systems. He has served as the committee member in major international conferences on optical communication including OFC, ECOC and OECC. He was the Lead Series Editor of the Optical Communications and Networks Series in IEEE Communications Magazine. He has received various awards including C&C Prize, IEICE Achievement Award, METI Minister Awards. He is a Fellow of IEEE and IEICE.
