THE OKAWA FOUNDATION
for lnformation and Telecommunicationsnё tibsё iencelandli五 lthё lbiai五 ￨‐Posltlon and Organization:
Dttcctor,ATR Colnputational Neuroscicncc Laboratorics
Doctorate:Ph.D.in Biophysical Enginee五ng(OSaka university,1981)

Date of Birth:Novcmbcr 12,1953

r6botics toward‐including a critical study of the equilibrium―

point control

hypothesis, and proposing and testing theories such ascerebellar models, the Mosaic model, and a bidirectional
theory of visual pcrccption.One of his most outstandingachievements is his proposal of the cerebellar intcrnal rnodcls
tlleory.It postulates tllat in tlle cerebellunl,whch plays a vitalrole in inotor control and higher― order cognition,neuralBrief Blography:
1976
1981

BoS.,Physics,University of Tokyo
Ph.D.,Biophysical Engineering,Osaka Univcrsity
Scicncc,Osaka l」 niversity

Lecturcr,School of Engineering Scicnce,

common to motor control and higher― order cognition in thc

Osaka l」 nivcrsity

1988 Senior Rescarchcr,ATR Auditory and Visual
Pcrcep● on Research Laboratories

1989

Rcscarch Laboratorles
lnfonnation Proccssing Research Labor江 o五 cs

2001 Dcpartment Hcad,Dcpartment 3,ATR Humanhforlna■ on Science Laboratorics

2003 Director,ATR Computational Neurosciencc
Laborttorlcs

Maln Awards and Honors:
Minister of Statc for Scicnce and Technology

Award for Persons of Scientiic and TcchnologicalResearch Mcrit1993 0saka Scicncc Prizc
1997 0kawa Publications Prize2005 Chunichi Cultural Awttd
2007

Asahi Pl・ ize

2008

1ntcrnational Neural Network S ocicty GaborAw嗣2009ceКbellum He applicd tllcse p五 nciples also to the succcssful

dcvclopment of a humanoid robot callcd】 DB、 vith freedom ofleg and arlll inotion similar to that of humans.

Supcrvisor,ATR Auditory and Visual Pcrccption

1992 Dcpartmcnt Head,Departmcnt 3,ATR Human1993

and othcr pcoplc's brains are acquircd through lctting. Hcwent on to dcmonstrate this theow in joint rcscarch onmonkeys and by noninvasive measurements of human brain
activity. Through these studies, he clarificd principlcs

1981 Rcscarch Associate,School of Enginccring
1987

nct、 vorks that rnimic the functions of parts of the body,tools,

1nfo― Conllnunications P■ omotion Month Ministcrof lnternal Affairs and Con■ munications
Colllmendation(individual)

Maln Achievements:

In the coursc of his original rescarch and dcvclopment, Dr.
Kawat♂ s rcscarch group announced an ̀̀air hockcy robot''as a self― leaming robot that alters its bchavior throughrcwards and punishmcnt bascd on imitating what it sees,

thanks to abrain'' that learns by making cffcctive use oferrors.His group was also the first in the world to dcvclop abrain― machine intcrfacc controlling a robot by thought alonc.

His research rcsults have been publishcd in a numbcr of books

and more than 100 papcrs in the 、vorldis leadng scicntiic
joumals including Nα rlt″ and Sε′ ει.Furthermore,he has
̀れbeen invitcd morc than 100 dmcs as a gucstlcctulcr in various

pttts of tllc world and has organizcd many intemational
sylllposiums with the subsequcnt publica■ on of the collected
papers,as part of his wides"ad global acdvitics.

His achicvements have bccn rccognized in Japan and abroad,and havc camed him many diffcrcnt awards including thelntemational Ncural Network Socicty Gabor A、 vttd, aMinistcr of Statc for Sciencc and Tcchnology awttd, theosaka scicncc PHze, tlle Okawa Publications P五 ze, and a
Minister of htcmal Affairs and Communications award.InⅣIay 2001 hc was invited by Professor Stcn Grillner, theforlncr chairlllan of thc sclcc■ on committee for thc Nobcl

As onc of the world's prcmicr cxperts in the field ofcomputational ncuroscience, Dr. Mitsuo Kawato has madenumerous colltributions in highly advanccd arcas, including■ ize in Physiology or Medicinc,to give a lecture atthe NobelForum as thc only gucst speaker;and in Junc 2003 he gave alccture atthe Nobel Symposium.

tlle proposd and vc五 ication of the ccrcbcll霞 intcmal rnodcls

theory and elucidation of brain functions using humanoid

For outstanding contributions to pionccring research inrobots.Today hc coninues to be active on tllc fronticrs of theintegrating ncurOscicnce and robotics toward understanding of

icld as director of thc ATR Computationd Neuroscicncc

inforlnation proccssing in the brdn, 1)r. Mitsuo Kawato isLaborato五 cs.

hereby awarded the(Dkawa PHze.

Dr. Kawato has combined theo7 witll CXpc五mcntation toachicvc a wide varicty of accomplishmcnts in ncuroscicnce,27