Nagamori AwardsAwards Ceremony

Winners of the First Nagamori Awards Decided, Give Presentations (2015)

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Nagamori Foundation (address: Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi; President: Shigenobu Nagamori) has today announced that it has held a presentation session by the winners of the First Nagamori Awards and an awards ceremony for them on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

Nagamori Awards, intended to activate researches related to motors, actuators, and power generators to address the major challenges of “maintaining our affluent life” and “conserving the global environment perpetually,” aims to recognize the works of people who achieved innovative technological development. For the Awards, Nagamori Foundation accepts applications from research and development engineers who work at domestic or overseas universities, public institutions, private companies, or other organizations, and who have made outstanding contributions. Three to five of such candidates are selected as award winners every year.

For the First Nagamori Awards, 47 works were submitted based on recommendation by academic institutions or the candidate him-/herself, and the following six people were selected as winners after a prior examination by Nagamori Foundation's review committee, which, after studying all relevant elements including the presentations by individual winners, selected Professor Kan Akatsu of Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, to receive the Grand Nagamori Award, on the day of the ceremony. Professor Akatsu will receive an extra prize of 5 million yen, and the other winners will receive 1 million yen.

The Grand Nagamori Award (2015)

Kan Akatsu(Japan)
[Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering Shibaura Institute of Technology]
Research on and development of low-cost, high-performance SR motors to foster more widespread use and increase energy-savings

Award Winners (2015)

Wolfgang Gruber(Austria)
[Assistant Professor, Institute of Electrical Drives and Power Electronics, Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz | Senior Researcher, LCM GmbH]
Design, optimization and manufacturing of novel of bearingless slice motor topologies and their industrial implementation
Yasuhisa Hasegawa(Japan)
[Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University]
Basic research and clinical applications concerning upper limb support technology for disabled patients
Chun-Yu Hsiao(Taiwan)
[Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering National Taiwan University of Science and Technology | Technical Adviser, Kilews Industrial Co., Ltd.]
Design of High Performance Permanent-magnet Synchronous Motor
Takeshi Morita(Japan)
[Associate Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo]
Research on the basic driving principles of the piezoelectric actuator and how this technology can be used in the development of new applications
Omar Scaglione(Switzerland)
[R&D Engineer, Product Development, Faulhaber Minimotor SA]
Iron Hysteresis and Enhanced Kalman Filtering for Sensorless Position Detection of Synchronous Motors

The Grand Nagamori Award winner's comment

Kan Akatsu

Professor, Kan Akatsu
(Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology)

“It is such a great honor to be given this very prestigious First Nagamori Award. I have worked to develop energy-saving motors at Shibaura Institute of Technology since 2009, targeting to achieve “50% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2050.” Through the process of research and development, which produced results thanks to my students' hard work, and by giving lectures, I was able to feel that I am making at least some contributions to energy saving. This process also started me thinking, in addition to improving motors' performance, how to spread the energy-saving motors and inverters. This Award that I have received from Mr. Nagamori, President of Nagamori Foundation and the person I respect as the founder of the motor-specialized company Nidec Corporation as a result of experiencing such a process is the best possible form of encouragement for me, and also makes me more determined than ever to achieve more visible contributions. As I receive this Award, I would like to thank my students for their hard work and dedication to the research, my fellow research engineers and company researchers, with whom I conduct joint research, staff at NEDO and Shibaura Institute of Technology, and my family.”

Comment by Mr. Shigenobu Nagamori (President, Nagamori Foundation)

“We received 47 works from applicants for the First Nagamori Awards. It was especially wonderful that a number of applicants submitted their works from overseas (six from Asia and eight from Europe). We will work hard to be able to promote many applicants to submit their works for the Awards next time and after, for which your kind instructions and support will be truly appreciated.”
“For the First and prestigious Nagamori Awards, six people were selected as winners after a rigorous examination by the Nagamori Awards' review committee. Nagamori Foundation, though established fairly recently in December last year, will be committed to making every effort to further advancement of science and technology. We thank you in advance for your cooperation as we move forward to achieve the goal.”

Nagamori Awards:

Motor researches are becoming increasingly critical a theme to maintain our affluent life and conserve the global environment perpetually. Nagamori Awards were created to promote active researches on not only motors but also their peripheral fields such as power generators and actuators, and support research and development engineers who dedicate themselves in their day-to-day work to realize their dreams.

Name Nagamori Awards
Areas Technological fields related to motors, actuators, power generators, and their control methods
Applicants Research and development engineers who work at domestic/overseas universities, public institutes, private companies, or other organizations, and who have made outstanding contributions.
Application By way of recommendation by an academic institute or self-recommendation
Application period November 01, 2014 - January 31, 2015 (for the First Nagamori Awards)
Awards Three - five people receive Nagamori Awards, and the Grand Nagamori Award winner is announced during the awards ceremony. The Grand Nagamori Award winner receives 5 million yen, and award winners receive 1 million yen respectively.