International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 47 (2004) 4503–4504
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Personal Report

Professor Masaru Hirata

Masaru Hirata was born on 13 August 1931 in
Tokyo and celebrated his 70th birthday three years
ago.
Professor Hirata attended the University of Tokyo,
where he received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1954. He proceeded to the Graduate Schoolof Engineering, the University of Tokyo, and received
the Doctor of Engineering Degree for his thesis work on
liquid droplet combustion in 1959. Through these years,
his supervisor was Professor Niichi Nishiwaki, theFounder of Japan’s heat transfer research. Immediatelyafter graduation, he was appointed to Assistant Professor, and then to Associate Professor in 1960. From1962 to 1963, as a visiting research fellow, he worked on
two-phase boundary layers in the Heat Transfer Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. In 1970, he wasnamed Full Professor of the University of Tokyo at
the age of 39. His research and educational activities
covered broad areas such as thermodynamics, energy
conversion, gas turbines, nuclear power, cogeneration,
convective and phase change heat transfer, and turbulence. After devoting himself to the research and education at the University of Tokyo over 30 years, heretired and was nominated Professor Emeritus in 1992.
Then, he moved as Professor to Shibaura Institute ofTechnology and has been actively working there overthe last decade.
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2003.06.008

Professor Hirata has authored or co-authored over
470 journal and conference papers in the areas of heattransfer, combustion, boiling, turbulence, and energy
conversion systems. His work is well known especially inthe areas of turbulent boundary layer with mass injection (full coverage ﬁlm cooling), impinging jet heattransfer, thermally driven ﬂows (stratiﬁed ﬂows andplumes), large eddy structures in turbulent shear ﬂows,subcooled boiling heat transfer, supercritical ﬂuid heattransfer, cogeneration, and various ﬂow visualization
techniques (liquid crystals and particle tracking velocimetry). He wrote and edited 11 books on heat engines,
thermodynamics, heat transfer, energy saving, and ﬂow
measurement.
Beside these distinguished academic achievements,
Professor Hirata has contributed to social enlightenmentof the energy problem in Japan and Asian countries. He
has always emphasized the importance of cogeneration
systems for energy saving and patiently guided thegovernment to approve the related bills and laws. He
repeated on every occasion, ‘‘Once we ﬁre fuel, we must
immediately drive a heat engine until the released heatreaches the environmental temperature,’’ and this phrase
has been well accepted by various sectors of the society.
In recent years, he claims that the 21st century shouldbe the era of natural gas and eventually hydrogen, andhe is actively promoting the magniﬁcent project on4504

Personal Report / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 47 (2004) 4503–4504‘‘Northeast Asian Gas Pipeline Network’’ in the regionof Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, North-Korea andJapan.
During his career at the University of Tokyo and theShibaura Institute of Technology, Professor Hirata has
supervised numerous theses of BS, ME, and Dr. Eng.
students. Over 200 students have graduated from hislaboratory, and he has supervised over 40 doctor theses.
His basis of education is to develop individual talents ofthe students. This is reﬂected in the list of his students,
who are actively playing important roles in the academia
and industries: e.g., M. Kumada (Gifu University),
T. Igarashi (National Defense Academy), K. Kudo,
A. Kuroda (Hokkaido University), T. Obata (TeikyoUniversity), Y. Kukita (Nagoya University), N. Kasagi,
S. Nishio, Y. Suzuki (The University of Tokyo),
K. Kitamura (Toyohashi University of Technology),
G. Miyake (Yamaguchi National College of Technology), S. Isshiki (Ashikaga Institute of Technology), M.
Ito (Hitachi), T. Nakatogawa, A. Tsuge, Y. Iritani(Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), H. Nakagome, S. Yokobori (Toshiba), and Y. Fukuyama (National Aerospace Laboratory).
Professor Hirata has been a very active member of
the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), theHeat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ), the Gas Turbine
Society of Japan (GTSJ), the Marine Engineering Society of Japan (MESJ) and so forth. He has worked as
President of the JSME, the HTSJ and the MESJ, and is
now Member of the Science Council of Japan. He has
also made continuous eﬀort in establishing and promoting the Cogeneration Center of Japan (CGCJ) andthe National Pipeline Research Society of Japan(NPRSJ). He is currently President of the CGCJ, Vice
President of the Asian Pipeline Research Society, andGeneral Secretary of Northeast Asian Gas & Pipeline
Forum (NAGPF). He has devoted himself for promoting the international exchange and technology transfer
by organizing meetings and conferences, e.g., as Member of the Assembly of International Heat Transfer
Conferences.
His outstanding contributions to the ﬁelds of heattransfer, energy utilization and environmental impact
mitigation have not gone unnoticed. He was awarded bythe JSME three Best Paper Awards in 1976, 1987, and1990; Thermal Engineering Division Award for theTime-honored Outstanding Leadership in 1997; andPower & Energy Systems Division Award for the Outstanding Contribution in 1999. He also received BestPaper Award from the GTSJ in 1988, Toshio Dokoh
Memorial Award for the Outstanding Contribution tothe Environmental Protection from Exhaust Gases ofMarine Diesel Engines from the MESJ in 2001, andAward for the Outstanding Contribution for the International Activities in Thermal Sciences from the FrenchSociety of Thermodynamics in 2002. He was elected
to JSME Honorary Member in 1997 and Honorary
Member of Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian
Branch, in 2002.
Professor Hirata’s long-time devotion and services toindustry and government have also been widely recognized through commendation as distinguished scientistby Tokyo Metropolis in 1990, the Ministry of Scienceand Technology in 1992, the Ministry of the Environment in 1998, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure
and Transport in 2001.
Professor Hirata has always had dreams for humanbeings, and has devoted himself entirely to make themcome true. He is a person of master mind. He is and has
been also a devoted husband. His wife, Hiroko, and hecelebrated their 42nd anniversary last November. He has
been an avid sportsman, enjoying swimming and baseball, and served as Director of the Baseball Club of theUniversity of Tokyo during 1982–1991.
On behalf of Professor Hirata’s students, his colleagues, and his friends all over the world, we would liketo wish him many happy returns and respectfully dedicate this Festschrift in his honor.
Nobuhide Kasagi and Masahiro Shoji
Department of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Hongo
Tokyo 113 8656
JapanTel.: +81-3-5841-6417; fax: +81-3-5800-6999
E-mail address: kasagi@thtlab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Available online 11 June 2004