Kenji Uchino
Biography
Kenji Uchino, one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators, is Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers and Professor of EE and MatSE at Penn State University. He was Associate Director (Global Technology Awareness) at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office (2010-2014). He was also the Founder and Senior Vice President of Micromechatronics Inc., State College, PA (2004-20010). He became Research Associate/Assistant Professor (1976) in Physical Electronics Department at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, then, joined Sophia University, Japan as Associate Professor in Physics Department in 1985. He was recruited from The Penn State University in 1991. He was the Founding Chair of Smart Actuators/Sensors Committee, Japan Technology Transfer Association sponsored by Ministry of Economics, Trading and Industries, Japan (1987-2014), and is a long-term Chair of International Conference on New Actuators, Messe Bremen, Germany since 1997.
His research interest is in solid state physics, especially in ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics, including basic research on theory, materials, device designing and fabrication processes, as well as application development of solid state actuators/sensors for precision positioners, micro-robotics, ultrasonic motors, smart structures, piezoelectric transformers and energy harvesting. K. Uchino is known as the discoverer/inventor of the following topics: (1) lead magnesium niobate (PMN)-based electrostricive materials, (2) cofired multilayer piezoelectric actuators (MLA), (3) superior piezoelectricity in relaxor-lead titanate-based piezoelectric single crystals (PZN-PT), (4) photostrictive phenomenon, (5) shape memory ceramics, (6) magnetoelectric composite sensors, (7) transient response control scheme of piezoelectric actuators (Pulse-Drive technique), (8) micro ultrasonic motors, (9) multilayer disk piezoelectric transformers, and (10) piezoelectric loss characterization methodology. He has authored 570 papers, 75 books and 31 patents in the ceramic actuator area.
He is a Fellow of American Ceramic Society since 1997, a Fellow of IEEE since 2012, and also is a recipient of 29 awards, including 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), Premier Research Award from The Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (2011).
