New “NTT Fellow” Program to Accelerate Activities at NTT Laboratories

In this issue, we introduce some activities of the Okamoto Laboratory, as a sequel to the previous issue, which featured the Moriya Laboratory.

In April 2007, NTT conferred the title of “NTT Fellow” on Dr. Takehiro Moriya and Dr. Tatsuaki Okamoto as part of its new fellow program launched in January 2007. This program was established to provide an environment and mechanism that will enable distinguished researchers to devote themselves wholeheartedly to innovative and extremely advanced research themes in important technical fields related to NTT Group business.

At NTT Laboratories, the title of “NTT R&D Fellow” has been conferred on ten distinguished researchers as part of the existing fellow program. However, as “NTT R&D Fellow” has no influence on the research environment or treatment of a conferee, many top researchers have been seeking new opportunities outside the NTT Group. By providing top-level researchers with a research environment and benefits that enable them to pursue advanced research activities on an ongoing basis as an NTT employee, the new NTT Fellow program aims to raise the technical expertise of NTT Laboratories and improve the competitive edge of the NTT Group, and by extension, to contribute to the advancement of information and communications technology (ICT) throughout the world.

A candidate for NTT Fellow must satisfy the following conditions.

- Have an excellent record of research accomplishments and be recognized as a leader in his or her scientific or technical field internationally

- Have an extremely high level of expertise as a researcher and have made significant contributions to NTT technology and business

- Be likely to produce outstanding research achievements into the future as an innovative researcher in important scientific and technical fields

- Be of character appropriate for a researcher representing NTT

The following expectations are made of an NTT Fellow.

- Produce innovative and extremely advanced research results that enhance corporate value

- Through these results, contribute to NTT technology and business, Japanese society, and the betterment of mankind and global society

An NTT Fellow is to head a research team as a special research manager at NTT Laboratories with the mission of instigating a paradigm shift in NTT R&D and changing the world for the better. Furthermore, as a member of the highest echelon of researchers, an NTT Fellow is to be a role model for young NTT researchers.

To create “a future world of communication focused on people and the earth,” NTT Laboratories is researching basic technologies to create new communication services and communication networks to support those services, as well as advanced basic technologies with an eye toward communication needs ten years into the future. The new NTT Fellow program is one of several new measures for stimulating activities at NTT Laboratories and accelerating the output of R&D results.