Awards

There are four categories of awards for authors who presented distinguished papers at SSDM.

SSDM Award

The SSDM Award is awarded to researchers who contributed an outstanding paper at the past SSDM conferences.

• 

  Subramaniam Arulkumaran

  Nanyang Technological University

  
  Dr. Subramaniam Arulkumaran is born 1969 in Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu, India. After gaining Ph.D. degree in 1997 on III-V semiconductors from Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Chennai, India, Dr. Arul started his III-Nitride research at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NIT), Nagoya, Japan. He worked at Motorola Semiconductors (ON Semi) for 1.5 years as a Device Physicist. Then, he moved back to NIT, Japan in 1999 as a JSPS Fellow to continue the III-Nitride research with Prof. Takashi Egawa and established device fabrication and its characterization on Sapphire, AlN//Sapphire, Si and SiC substrate which led to several publications and proof of concepts.
  In March 2005, Dr. Arul joined Temasek Laboratories, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore and established the III-Nitride / III-V research activities and did major contributions on the Development of GaN technology on various substrates (e.g. Sapphire, Si, SOI, and SiC). He is now Associate Program Director of Centre for Microsystems Technologies (CMT) and leading the Microsystems Technology Development Centre, NTU, Singapore, while running several up-stream research and capability build-up programs.
  Dr. Arul has established collaborative research activities with several reputed universities /companies globally. In addition, he has actively collaborated with Prof. Hiroshi Amano’s (Nobel Laureate) team, Nagoya University(NU), Japan and published several research papers. He was honored as a Visiting Professor of NU, Japan from Dec 2016–Mar 2026.
  He has published over 255 research articles in Journals / Conferences (e.g. IEDM) as well as several invited talks. He has contributed two book chapters and also filed several technology disclosures in NTU. Several of his research publications were featured in international magazines. He has also served as a technical program committee (TPC) member for several top-tier conferences (e.g. IEDM, IWN, ICNS, CSW, ISCS and etc.).
  Dr. Arul is a recipient of (i) DAAD research fellowship (1996) from German Academic Exchange Service, Germany, (ii) JSPS postdoctoral fellowship (1999), Japan (iii) Defense Technology Prize (DTP) (2007) (Team Award), Singapore and (iv) National Day Award: Commendation Medal (Pingat-Kepujian) (2016), Singapore.

• 

  Takashi Egawa

  Nagoya Institute of Technology

  Takashi Egawa received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electronics from Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1980 and 1982, respectively. From 1982 to 1988, he was engaged in research on high-speed GaAs LSI in Oki Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. He received D.E. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1991. In 1991, he joined Nagoya Institute of Technology as a research associate. He became an associate professor in 1993, a professor in 1999 at the Research Center for Micro-Structure Devices, and a professor in 2004 at the Research Center for Nano-Device and System. He is now an adjunct professor and a professor emeritus. Fields of his current interest are heteroepitaxy of GaN and GaAs by MOCVD and its application to electronic and optical devices. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 publications in international journals. He has served as Editor of IEEE Electron Device Letters for the compound semiconductor devices area from 2012 to 2021.

• 

  Hiroyasu Ishikawa

  Shibaura Institute of Technology

  Hiroyasu Ishikawa received the B.E. degree in Electronic Engineering and the M.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Shibaura Institute of Technology in 1993 and 1995, respectively, and the D.E. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1998. He joined Nagoya Institute of Technology as a research associate in 1998 and became an associate professor in 2005. In 2009, he joined Shibaura Institute of Technology as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2014. His research has focused on the heteroepitaxial growth of GaN by MOCVD and its applications to electronic and optoelectronic devices. His current research interests include non-silicon photovoltaic materials and metal-oxide semiconductors.

History of the SSDM Paper Award is here

SSDM Best Student Award (BSA)

SSDM Best Student Award is awarded to the best student paper presented at the previous year’s SSDM. This award was established from SSDM 2022.

• 

  Yu-wei Hsu

  National Taiwan University

  Yu-Wei Hsu is a Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Advanced Technology at National Taiwan University (NTU). He is co-supervised by Prof. Chih-I Wu at NTU and Prof. Tsung-En Lee at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU). His research focuses on two-dimensional semiconductor devices, with particular emphasis on contact engineering, dielectric integration, and defect/interface modulation for advanced electronic applications.

History of the SSDM Best Student Award is here

SSDM Young Researcher Award (YRA)

SSDM Young Researcher Award is awarded to the first authors who presented excellent papers at last SSDM. The author should be 33 years old or younger as of April 1st in the next year of the conference.

• 

  Yushi Abarra

  The University of Tokyo

  Elliot Yushi Abarra received the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Systems from the University of Melbourne in 2023. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems at the University of Tokyo, where he is a member of Takeuchi Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Ken Takeuchi.
  His research focuses on non-volatile memory technologies, particularly Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) and their application to Computation-in-Memory (CiM) for accelerating machine learning workloads. He is especially interested in the impact of device-level non-idealities, including random telegraph noise (RTN), write variation, and retention-induced conductance drift on neural network inference accuracy. His current work aims to develop mitigation strategies and hardware-software co-design techniques to improve the robustness and reliability of ReRAM-based CiM systems.

• 

  Kosuke Ota

  Waseda University

  Kosuke Ota received his B.S. degree from the School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 2021, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 2023 and 2026, respectively. He also served as a Research Associate at Waseda University from 2023 to 2024.
  His research focused on diamond semiconductors for power and high-frequency device applications, particularly the development of field-effect transistors (FETs) to overcome the physical limits of conventional materials. He demonstrated the first normally-off operation in vertical diamond FETs using oxidized silicon-terminated diamond channels and the first high-frequency operation in lateral multi-finger diamond FETs with a source-via structure. Since joining a corporation in 2024, he has been engaged in the research and development of next-generation power devices for energy-efficient electronic systems.

• 

  Chao Zhang

  The University of Tokyo

  Chao Zhang received his B.Eng. degree in Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, in 2018. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Systems at The University of Tokyo, Japan.
  His research focuses on silicon photonics and high-performance photodetectors for RF/microwave photonics applications. He has been working on Ge-on-Si and Ge-on-insulator photodetectors operating at both 1.55 μm and 2 μm wavelength bands, with an emphasis on achieving high saturation photocurrent and wide bandwidth. His recent work includes the design and experimental demonstration of a four-port waveguide coupled Ge photodetector for high-output-current and high-speed operation. His research aims to advance integrated photonic devices for next-generation optical communication and RF systems.

• 

  Takuya Miura

  Waseda University

  Takuya Miura received a Master’s degree from the Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, in 2026. His research focused on planar thermoelectric power generation devices using silicon, with particular emphasis on improving power generation performance through material selection and device design. Through these experiences, he aims to become a professional who can contribute to the semiconductor industry.

• 

  Aghnia Dinan Maulani Heriyanto

  NAIST

  Dr. Aghnia D.M.H is a postdoctoral researcher at the Organic Electronics Laboratory, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in Materials Science from NAIST, where her research focused on carbon nanotube (CNT)-based thermoelectric materials for energy harvesting applications. Her currently work focuses on engineering CNT yarn and composite systems to enhance thermoelectric performance through precise control of electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity. She has developed CNT–perovskite hybrid structures that introduce molecular junctions at CNT bundle interfaces, effectively suppressing phonon transport while maintaining efficient charge transport. This strategy enables significant reduction of thermal conductivity while preserving or improving overall thermoelectric performance.
  Dr. Aghnia also investigates doping strategies for achieving stable n-type CNT thermoelectric materials, with particular attention to long-term air stability. Her research integrates material design, nanoscale interface engineering, and material characterization to advance flexible and wearable thermoelectric generators.

• 

  Daiki Nishioka

  National Institute for Materials Science

  Daiki Nishioka received his Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Science in 2024, where he studied brain-inspired computing based on ionic devices. In the same year, he joined the International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS) at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) as an ICYS Research Fellow.
  His research focuses on neuromorphic and in-materio computing using nanoionic devices, particularly physical reservoir computing and artificial synapses. He develops device architectures that exploit ionic dynamics to achieve efficient, high-performance information processing. He is also interested in integrating sensing and computation within a single platform, enabling compact, low-power systems for edge AI. Through this work, he aims to bridge nanoionics, sensing, and neuromorphic engineering for next-generation intelligent devices.

• 

  Hikaru Hoshikawa

  NAIST

  Hikaru Hoshikawa was born in Japan in 1999. He received his B.E. degree in Engineering from the National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education, Japan, in 2022. He received his M.E. degree in Engineering from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2024. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the same university. His research interests include oxide semiconductors, polycrystalline Ga-doped In₂O₃ thin-film transistors, and 3D integrated devices.

• 

  Cedric Xavier Corley-Wiciak

  ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

  Dr. Cedric Corley-Wiciak studied Nanoscience at the University of Kassel, Germany, where he received his M. Sc degree for work on the epitaxial growth of III-V heterostructures on Silicon substrates. He carried out his PhD research at the Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics, Germany, studying the elastic strain landscape around functional Silicon and Germanium-based qubits and other quantum devices by Scanning X-ray Diffraction Microscopy, and received his doctorate from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2024.
  He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the European Synchrotron Research Facility in Grenoble, France, where he is workpackage lead of the EU Horizon project AddMorePower and studies the structural degradation of High Electron Mobility Transistors by a range of dynamic X-ray diffraction microscopy techniques.

• 

  Yuto Watanabe

  Shinshu University

  Yuto Watanabe received his B.S. degree in engineering from Shinshu University, Japan, in 2025. He is currently pursuing an M.S. degree in the Graduate School of Science and Technology at Shinshu University, Japan. His research interests include analog LSI design, particularly high-frequency DC–DC converters for IVR applications in modern integrated circuits and power delivery systems for advanced processors and SoCs.

History of the SSDM Young Researcher Award is here

Call for 2026 SSDM Award Nomination

The SSDM Award was established to recognize outstanding contributions to academic or industrial development in the field of solid state devices and materials.
Papers to be nominated for the 2026 SSDM Award should be among those that have been presented between the 1st SSDM conference in 1969 and the 52nd SSDM conference in 2020.

The SSDM Award will ultimately be decided by the SSDM Organizing Committee after a recommendation is made by the SSDM Award Nomination Committee.

The recommendation will be in accordance with the following two criteria.

• 1) Originality

  The award-winning selection must be original, and must have had significant theoretical or practical impact in the field of solid state devices and materials.

• 2) Contribution

  The author(s) of the award-winning selection must have played or be playing a pioneering or leading role, with globally outstanding contributions in the technological field.

Candidate and Nominator Eligibility

• – Candidates Eligible for the Award

  All authors who presented papers between the 1st SSD conference in 1969 and the 52nd SSDM conference in 2020, excluding papers written by this year’s Organizing Committee Chair and Award Nomination Committee Chair.

• – Persons Eligible for Nominating Candidates

  Anyone, excluding this year’s members of the SSDM Award Nomination Committee

Submission Process for SSDM Award Nominations

The following is the process for submitting nominations.

• – Before deciding on a candidate for the award, confirm the eligibility of nominators and candidates once again.
• – Download the Nomination Form.
  [ SSDM Award Nomination Form (MS‐Word) ]
• – Fill out the Nomination Form and send it to the SSDM Secretariat.
  Nomination deadline: May 11, 2026 CLOSED

History of the SSDM Award is here