In 2002 I was contacted by a young Japanese engineer with the request to spend a 1 year sabbatical at the Delft University of Technology. It turned out that the young engineer was working for Sony, and that Sony fully supported the initiative of staying 1 year abroad. At that time I had a very small group of researchers working on CMOS image sensors at the University, and extra manpower was more than welcome. So within a couple of days an agreement was set up between the University and Sony, and only a few weeks later the engineer arrived in Delft.
When the University’s security called me up and told me that a visitor arrived for me, I went to the elevator to wait for the Japanese engineer. When he stepped out of the elevator, a tall, skinny, happy-faced person stepped to me, and introduced himself. Then he asked : “How shall I call you ?”. That particular question immediately illustrated to me that this was the right person, taking innitiative, not shy even not in a foreign culture. He said : “You can call me Hiro !”.
Hiro worked for me during 1 year. He focused on the simulation of noise sources in a CMOS image pixel. We had a great time together. He was enthusiastic, always open-minded, and with a very great sense of humor. He talked about his family, about his friends, about the Japanese culture, about traditions, and other subjects, he never talked about his employer Sony. That was also something I very much appreciated. He kept the industrial secrets for himself, the way it should be.
After his sabbatical year, Hiro did not join Sony again, but he went for an American adventure. He decided to work for Kodak in Rochester. To me this was a bit a strange choice, because I think that Sony invested in him to widen his technical expertise and not to widen his horizon with a contract to Sony’s competitor. Anyhow, it was Hiro’s choice and Sony as well as myself respected that. The contacts with Hiro became loose, till I met him a couple of years ago at the IEDM in San Francisco. We had a nice dinner together in a Japanese restaurant. The conversation we had was again very open, lively, with a lot of jokes, humor and fun. He told me that he was going to marry, he seemed a very happy man to me. Later on he sent me a mail with the message that he became a father.
Unfortunately, very recently the message arrived on my PC that Hiro passed away, while he was back in Japan. I have no idea what happened to him, it turned out that he was hospitalized, but that is all I know about it. When the sad message reached me, I was absolutely shocked. Such a young, lively, intelligent person was no longer with us. I think that most of the people active in the imaging community will not know Hiro, but the few that do know him, will all agree : we lost a great personality, a great friend, a great colleague. I would like to wish his family all the strenghts that they need to overcome their great lost. I do have the great memory of Hiro and I am very happy that I could get to work with him. To paraphrase someone “Hiro, we would have liked to know you better and will miss your not being here”. Goodbye Hiro !
Albert.
11-12-2011
My condolences to Hiro’s family and friends.