For Immediate Release: April 9, 1997
New Haven, CT -- Dr. Tadahiro Sekimoto, board chairman and president of Nippon Electric Corp. NEC , will present the first Sheffield Fellowship address at Yale University by an international fellow. Titled "Sustainable Growth, Where Will Technology Take Us?", his talk will be Thursday, April 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Sudler Auditorium of William Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. Free and open to the public, the presentation will be followed by a reception at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Dr. Sekimoto, who has served as NEC president since 1980, became board chairman in June 1994. He received his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Tokyo, where he also received a Doctor of Engineering degree. He joined NEC in 1948. In 1965, he completed two years of research on satellite technology at COMSAT, a U.S. communications satellite company. Upon returning to Japan, he served as general manager of the transmission division before being elected to the board of directors in 1974. Dr. Sekimoto was appointed Senior Vice President in charge of switching, transmission and terminals operations in 1977, and executive vice president responsible for domestic sales, switching, transmission and terminals operations in 1978.
Dr. Sekimoto holds significant posts in various private and government-related organizations in Japan, most significantly as vice chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations KEIDANREN . He has also received numerous awards including the Purple Ribbon Medal and Blue Ribbon Medal from his Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE , the Aerospace Communications Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, Ordre National De La Legion D'Honneur Officier from the French government, and most recently the Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
The Sheffield Fellowship was established in 1996 to honor the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale. Founded in 1852 to train engineers, the school produced some of the greatest inventors and industrial leaders of the 19th and 20th centuries before it was absorbed into the growing Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the mid-1940's.
The Sheffield Fellowship brings to Yale leaders and innovators in business, industry and government. In addition to presenting a lecture, fellows tour laboratories and classrooms and meet with faculty and students. Informal discussions with members of student organizations provide career perspectives in engineering and related fields, according to D. Allan Bromley, Dean of Engineering and sponsor of the fellowship program.
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CONTACT: Cynthia L. Atwood #220