Hirofumi Ueno

Hirofumi Ueno
Name	Hirofumi Ueno
Native name	植野 弘文
Birth date	1960
Birth place	Osaka, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Fields	Electrical engineering, Nanotechnology, Photonics
Workplaces	University of Tokyo, RIKEN, Kyoto University
Alma mater	Osaka University, University of Tokyo
Known for	Nanophotonic devices, plasmonics, metamaterials
Awards	Japan Academy Prize, IEEE Fellow

Hirofumi Ueno is a Japanese electrical engineer and nanophotonics researcher noted for contributions to plasmonic devices and metamaterials. He has held faculty and research positions at institutions such as the University of Tokyo, RIKEN, and Kyoto University, and has published extensively on nanoscale light–matter interaction, integrated photonic circuits, and subwavelength imaging. Ueno's work connects fundamental optics with applied device engineering for telecommunications, sensing, and quantum information applications.

Early life and education

Born in Osaka in 1960, Ueno completed early schooling in Osaka Prefecture before attending Osaka University, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering in electrical engineering. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Tokyo, obtaining a Master of Engineering and a Doctor of Engineering with theses on microwave engineering, guided-wave optics, and antenna theory. During doctoral training he collaborated with faculty associated with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and met postdoctoral researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, which influenced his shift toward nanophotonics and plasmonics.

Career

Ueno began his academic career as an assistant professor at Kyoto University, joining a group that included researchers from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. He later moved to the University of Tokyo faculty, holding joint appointments with the Institute of Industrial Science and collaborating with engineers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science. Ueno served as a visiting scholar at the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona and at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with colleagues associated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and IBM Research. His industrial collaborations encompassed Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Fujitsu laboratories, focusing on translating laboratory-scale demonstrations into prototype components for the telecommunications and semiconductor sectors.

At RIKEN, Ueno led a laboratory that integrated efforts with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, expanding investigations into extreme ultraviolet optics, near-field microscopy, and terahertz spectroscopy. He has been a member of professional societies including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP), serving on program committees for conferences such as CLEO, OECC, and Photonics West.

Major works and research

Ueno's major research themes include plasmonic waveguides, metamaterials for negative-index behavior, surface-enhanced spectroscopy, and subwavelength imaging. He authored foundational papers on metal-dielectric-metal waveguides that linked concepts from antenna theory, scattering theory, and diffraction studies by building on prior work from researchers at Bell Labs and the University of Cambridge. His group demonstrated compact plasmonic modulators and switches compatible with silicon photonics foundries, bridging efforts underway at Intel and IBM toward on-chip optical interconnects.

In metamaterials, Ueno contributed to designs for artificial dielectric lattices that achieved anisotropic permittivity and permeability, citing experimental parallels with experiments at Duke University and theoretical frameworks developed at Imperial College London. His work on surface plasmon resonance enhanced spectroscopy advanced biosensing approaches related to platforms developed by groups at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet, enabling single-molecule detection experiments analogous to those from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

Ueno also pursued research in terahertz photonics, collaborating with teams at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science and with researchers from Tohoku University to develop time-domain spectroscopy instrumentation and metamaterial absorbers with tailored impedance matching. His publications addressed fabrication techniques drawing from electron-beam lithography practices at the EPFL and nanoimprint lithography methods pioneered at Georgia Tech, while incorporating measurement protocols standard at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Awards and honors

Ueno has received multiple honors recognizing contributions to optics and engineering, including election as an IEEE Fellow for work in plasmonic devices and a Japan Academy Prize for advances in metamaterial physics. He has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and served as a principal investigator on Collaborative Research Grants with the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation via joint Japan–US programs. Ueno was invited to give plenary lectures at international conferences such as SPIE Photonics Europe, the IEEE Photonics Conference, and the International Conference on Nanophotonics, and received a distinguished alumni award from Osaka University.

Personal life

Ueno is married and maintains family ties in Osaka Prefecture. He is known to support outreach activities connecting laboratory research with industry partners such as NTT DOCOMO and Sony Corporation, and he mentors graduate students who have pursued careers at universities and companies including Toshiba, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Panasonic. Outside the laboratory, Ueno participates in scientific advisory boards for national research initiatives and enjoys cultural activities associated with Kyoto and Osaka, occasionally contributing to public lectures organized by the Japan Science Foundation.

Category:Japanese electrical engineers Category:Optical physicists Category:University of Tokyo faculty