Tatsuo Izawa
Senior Vice President, Research Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya,
Atsugi-shi Kanagawa, 243-01 Japan
Region 10 (Asia & Pacific) has about 1260 members, who make up 20 % of the total LEOS membership, which is almost the same size as Region 8 (Europe, Mid East, Africa). There are currently six chapters: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Taipei, and Tokyo. The Tokyo Chapter, which includes all of Japan, is the largest LEOS chapter and accounts for more than 50 % of the total Region 10 membership.
Recently, the Asia and Pacific region has seen an increasing amount of internationalization of its communications market place, which means there is a strong need for international cooperation. Some advanced multimedia communications projects have started in Asia, such as the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, the Singapore One, the Asia Internet Holding. Additionally, there are other important projects in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Hong Kong. There is a high probability that new and sophisticated opto-electronic technologies will be put into practical use first in the Asia and Pacific region as the key devices and systems for multimedia communications.
The very important role of LEOS is to support the growing activities in the region and respond to the above opportunities. Membership growth is the first necessary condition to systematically improve cooperation among researchers. Smooth and steady operations of chapters are indispensable for increasing membership and promoting services to members. The Korea Chapter received the Chapter Award for the largest membership increase in 1994, and was named the 1996 Chapter-of-the-Year. The Taipei Chapter, which was established in 1995, greatly increased membership (21 members) in 1997. A new LEOS chapter will soon be established in Singapore. Other new chapters are in the process of being established in Beijing and Indonesia. Additional chapters in Australia are now being considered to improve services in various cities.
Local support and cooperation with international conferences cosponsored by IEEE are the other important roles of LEOS. There are two important international conferences held in the Asia and Pacific region: the Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Pacific Rim) and the Optoelectronics and Communications Conference (OECC). The first CLEO/Pacific Rim was held at Makuhari, Japan in 1995, and approximately 1000 participants gathered and 300 papers on numerous hot topics were presented. The second conference, CLEO/Pacific Rim’97 was held also at Makuhari with great success in 1997. The next conference will be held in Korea in 1999.
The OECC, originally the Optoelectronics Conference (OEC), was established in 1986 as a domestic conference in Japan and has been held five times. The OEC was restructured into the OECC in 1996 to provide an annual international conference for the Asia and Pacific region and to extend its scope to include systems engineering and applications as well as basic science and device engineering. The first conference, OECC’96 was held in July 1996 at Makuhari, Japan. The second conference, OECC’97 was held with great success last year in Seoul, Korea, where there were approximately 700 participants and 350 papers, mainly from the Asia and Pacific region. The OECC’98 and OECC’99 will be held in Japan and in China, respectively.
In addition to the above, LEOS also supports the International Conference on Integrated Optics and Optical Fiber Communications (IOOC), which is held in the Asia and Pacific region every six years. To encourage the free exchange of information and ideas between chapters, a chapter-chair meeting is held during the week of such international conferences. Through cooperation with such major international forums, I hope for continued development in the field of lasers and electro-optics in the Asia and Pacific region, and that it will, in succession, expand worldwide.
I would like to acknowledge the staff and committee members of chapters and sections in this region for their dedication to the development of LEOS.