Heat Transfer Engineering, 34(5–6):409–419, 2013
C Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
Copyright 
ISSN: 0145-7632 print / 1521-0537 online
DOI: 10.1080/01457632.2012.721314

heat in history

The Heat Transfer Society of Japan,
the 50th Anniversary: Retrospect
and Prospect
WATARU NAKAYAMA
ThermTech International, Kanagawa, JapanThe Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ), herein “the Society,” was founded in 1961. A series of events have been held
to commemorate its 50th anniversary during 2011–2012. I participated in the events, talking and writing on the history of
the Society. This article is based on the materials I collected for my roles in the events, my recollections of the past, and mypersonal considerations about the Society and heat transfer research. Throughout the article I attempt to explain the Society’s
history in the light of organizational, technological, and industrial developments that have proceeded in the universities
and the industry in the past 50 years. The Society made its start as a nationwide coalition of study groups organized by thefounding academics. A symbolic feat of heat transfer research at the time, known as the Nukiyama curve, is briefly described.
The evolution of the Society in subsequent years mirrors the industrial developments in Japan. The Society’s commitments tothe international heat transfer community are summarized. Also, the issue of industry/academia collaboration is discussed.
Finally, a short discussion on the present and future generations of HTSJ members concludes the article.

INTRODUCTION
The Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ), herein “the Society,” was founded in 1961. To commemorate its 50th anniversary a series of events has been held in 2011 through 2012. The
events are the Special Session at the National Heat Transfer
Symposium in Okayama (June 1–3, 2011), the Commemorative
Heat Transfer Seminar in Yokohama (September 30–October
1, 2011), the 50th Anniversary Ceremony in Tokyo (November
26, 2011), and the Special Session at the National Heat Transfer
Symposium in Toyama (May 30–June 1, 2012). In addition, twointernational conferences were dedicated to the anniversary: the
4th International Conference on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flowin Microscale in Fukuoka (September 4–9, 2011), and the Asian
Symposium on Computational Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in
Kyoto (September 22–26, 2011).

Address correspondence to Dr. Wataru Nakayama, ThermTech International, 920-7 Higashi Koiso, Oh-Iso Machi, Kanagawa, Japan 255-0004. E-mail:watnakayama@aol.com

At the Special Session in Okayama I was invited to present asummary view of the Society’s evolution over the past 50 years.
The Commemorative Heat Transfer Seminar in Yokohama hadpresentations by the colleagues on the developments of heattransfer science and engineering in the past 50 years. The topics
and the presenters were Boiling and Condensation (M. Shoji andH. Honda), Radiation (R. Echigo), Forced and Natural Convection (Y. Nagano and H. Ozoe), Bio Heat Transfer (K. Tanishita),and Heat Transfer Equipment (W. Nakayama). The seminar
was a full-day event webcast in Japan, followed by free discussion sessions that went deep into the evening in a casual andfree-spirited atmosphere. The ceremony in Tokyo proceeded asfollows: an address by Professor Nobuhide Kasagi, 2011/2012
HTSJ president; congratulatory addresses by the representativesof the government ministries, the Science Council of Japan, theJapan Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Japan Societyof Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers; reading messages from Professor Richard J. Goldstein, representing ASME,
Professor Graham de Vahl Davis, representing ICHMT, Professor Avram Bar-Cohen, representing the Assembly for IHTC;
reading messages from two prominent scholars of the earliest

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days of HTSJ, Professors Kaneyasu Nishikawa and Naotsugu Isshiki; and presentation of distinguished service commendations
to 157 HTSJ members, including 6 from overseas, 2 publishers, and 3 administrators. The eldest among the commendation
recipients was Professor Itaru Michiyoshi, Professor Emeritus,
Kyoto University, who addressed the audience on behalf of all
the recipients commenting on the blessing he enjoys for his good
health and spirit in his mid eighties. Professor Akira Nagashima,
Professor Emeritus, Keio University, made the keynote presentation. He discussed the sustainability of the HTSJ, recalling his
studies on heat transfer and thermophysical properties.
The earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11,
2011, affected various aspects of our life and work. Particularly,
those colleagues in the hardest hit region experienced a periodof extreme agony and inconvenience. The tragedy was amplified
by what happened in Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The accident was triggered by the earthquake, and the crisis
was heightened by the subsequent onslaught of a tsunami. The
public confidence in nuclear power has been shattered sincethen. The development of nuclear power has been one of the
major motives for heat transfer science and engineering. We are
now asking ourselves what roles the HTSJ can play in the relief
effort for the damaged plant in particular, and in the national
effort to restructure the energy supply chain for a better future
in general. The sessions to discuss this urgent agenda were heldat the symposia in Okayama and Yokohama, and was held againin Toyama. Professor Shigenao Maruyama has been taking theinitiative in organizing the sessions and setting the agenda, as
the location of his home university, Tohoku University, madehim a natural choice for the task. As if administered by Mother
Nature, these sessions awoke our consciousness about the missions of heat transfer science and engineering in the midst of
the celebratory atmosphere of the anniversary.
In writing this article I used some of the materials frommy talk in Okayama, but felt the need to write anew for international readers. The sections are arranged as follows. The
next section, “In the Beginning,” describes how the Society wasstarted, and one of the prominent achievements of heat transfer
research that is now known as the “Nukiyama curve.” In thesection “Evolution of the Society in Perspective” I project thegrowth of the Society onto the charts of industrial developments
in Japan. The section “International Relations” summarizes thefunctions of the Society as a window to the international heattransfer community. The section “Industry/Academia Collaboration” describes the changing environment for the heat transfer
research in the industry and the university campuses. In “Concluding Notes” I present a short essay on the present and future
generations of HTSJ members.

IN THE BEGINNING
It may be appropriate to insert an introductory remark about
the Japanese university system, which has undergone adjustments to changing social environments. Japan’s modern eduheat transfer engineering

cational system was founded a few years after 1868, the year
marking the start of Japan’s modern-era government. During theperiod from the late 19th century to the early 20th century thecenters of higher learning and research were established by thegovernment in major metropolitan areas; their names indicate
the locations of the universities, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Tohoku,
Kyushu, Hokkaido, Osaka, and Nagoya. They were called the“Imperial Seven.” Tokyo Institute of Technology also has its origin in a technical college established by the government in thelate 19th century. Keio and Waseda universities had their origins
in the schools established in the 19th century by the prominent
leaders in business and politics. There are more schools that haveearned their prestige since the early years. Commonly adopted
in these schools was the “koh-za” system, which had its origin
in German schools of the 19th century. The “koh-za” is composed typically of a full professor, an assistant professor, and a
few assistants, and it had autonomy in choosing research topics and conducting research. After World War II the university
system underwent a shakeup, and many universities were born
mostly from those that had formerly been technical colleges. In
spite of such changes at the national level, the “koh-za” system
had been retained in the old universities until later years. In theearly years the source of research fund for the “koh-za” was the
Ministry of Education, and the outlay was sufficient enough fora professor to run the laboratory on that professor’s own terms.
The funding situation gradually changed during the 1980s andthe 1990s, and the need to diversify the sources of funding has
increased. With a certain phase lag from the change of funding
situation, the “koh-za” system has been replaced by the current
system, which is designed to encourage young faculty members
to assume independence from their seniors and to take more
initiatives in launching research programs.
The “koh-za” was the basic organizational unit in many engineering schools when the Heat Transfer Society was organized. I think the initial growth of the Society could be attributed partly to the “‘koh-za” system, which fostered personalbonds among the professor, research staff, students, and alumni.
Those of younger generations came around their mentors to help
the startup efforts. In addition, the former imperial universities
served as the conduits of technological modernization in postwar Japan. The professors in these universities understood what
needed to be done in basic engineering research to help renovate the industrial base. Heat transfer research was recognized
as one of the urgent needs for rebuilding the industrial base.
However, such general understanding did not lead to any research project of national scale. The “koh-za” system tended toleave researchers holed up in their own laboratories. Meanwhile,
researchers felt the need to make sure that their research programs fit in the national industrial needs. Information sharing ina loosely bound study group was perceived as the most desired
form of collaboration between researchers. In 196l, the plans
for such study groups sprang up spontaneously in Tokyo andKyoto/Osaka areas. The two plans were eventually merged intoa nationwide organization. On November 22, 1961, the Society
was inaugurated, and Professor Akira Kobayashi, then director
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W. NAKAYAMAof Toyota Central Research Laboratory, was elected as the firstpresident, along with the first-term officials. The officials, whowere in essence the executive committee members, included
five professors from the University of Tokyo, two from Kyoto
University, one each from Osaka, Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kyushu,
Tokyo Institute of Tech, and Nihon, and four from the different
government laboratories. The role of auditor was entrusted to
two individuals from the industry.
These founding members agreed to develop the Society into
something different from the existing professional societies inseveral respects. The bureaucratic overhead was reduced asmuch as possible. The administrative jobs were handled by the
key members in turn. Here, the “koh-za” provided conveniencein assigning secretarial chores to its secretary or assistants.
The autonomy of the regional groups was respected; that is, thecentral authoritative atmosphere had to be eliminated. Informal
and frank discussions were encouraged at seminars and symposia. These characteristics of the Society have been inherited
to this day. The Japanese name of the Society was literary “study
group” (kenkyuu-kai). The later growth of the Society together
with the need to strengthen the relationships with other societies
and the Science Council of Japan led to the adoption of a moreformal name “Society” (gakkai) in 1991. In 1995 the HTSJ
was formally registered among other science and engineeringsocieties in the list of the Ministry of Education, Science, andTechnology.
Most of the founding members were vigorous youths when
they started HTSJ. Before them, there had been several scholars who left their footprints in heat transfer science and engineering. Most notable among them was Professor Shiro (pronounced Shiro-h) Nukiyama, shown in Figure 1. Professor
Nukiyama was a professor at Tohoku University when he and his
team conducted their landmark experiments during 1929–1933.

Figure 1 Professor Shiro Nukiyama (1896–1983).

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Figure 2 A Nukiyama curve obtained with a 0.14-mm-diameter platinum wirein saturated water. The horizontal axis is the wire temperature in ◦ C, and thevertical axis is the heat flux in cal/cm2-s (left) or kcal/m2-h (right). (1 cal/cm2-s =4.187 W/cm2, and 1 kcal/m2-h = 1.163 W/m2.) The figure caption in Japanesereads “Fig.1.14 Measured results for the portion above Qmin obtained on a d =0.14 mm platinum wire” [1].

Figure 2 shows one of the graphs published in the JSME Journal
in 1934 [1]. The graph shows a complete boiling curve covering
the nucleate pool boiling regime, the burnout point, and the film
boiling regime. The data were obtained with a thin (0.14-mm
diameter) platinum wire immersed in a pool of water and heatedby passing electric current. I had an opportunity to learn somedetails of the experiment when I prepared my talk for the history
session of the ASME/JSME Thermal Engineering Joint Conference in Honolulu in 1991 [2]. There was a book that collected
the papers and memoirs of Professor Nukiyama. It was editedby Professor Yasusi Tanasawa and published by the group ofof Nukiyama koh-za graduates in 1969 [3]. I found this bookgreatly helpful to my work for Honolulu conference. The use ofa thin wire of high-melting-point material was a key to the success of obtaining the data beyond the burnout point. Cooling ona relatively large surface area of a thin wire helps to suppress the
maximum temperature in the wire. In addition, the high melting
point helps to avert melting of the wire. The concept seemed anatural one, but no one had made the actual attempt before Professor Nukiyama. Although the concept was logically sound,however, its implementation was another matter. I quote fromwhat Professor Tanasawa reflected in [3]. This part was written
in English, and hence, the quotation is verbatim.
On reflection, I remember we made some experiments on the
point of maximum boiling rate from 1929 till 1933. Mr. Kisuke
Kurose, our assistant, who was in charge of our experiment,
threw light on nickel wires and platinum wires in a thick glass
vessel generally used for a storage battery with a flash lightin hand, walking around on the water splashed concrete floor
in rubber boots. Professor Nukiyama in a white robe gazed atvol. 34 nos. 5–6 2013

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steam bubbles generating from thin wires. It was regrettable thatmany fine wires were burnt out before the maximum point wasreached. A thick glass vessel heated through sand bathing wassometimes broken into two with cracks. Every time a vessel
was broken, several reels of oscillogram were wasted. But inthe course of repeated failures, we grasped somehow a knackof difficult experiments and could verify the existence of the
maximum point and the minimum point as we had expectedbacked up with many experimental data.

Professor Tanasawa further reflected that the experimental
program was conceived out of scientific curiosity without any
application in mind. At the time they reported the data around1934 in Japan, few people paid serious attention. But the researchers were caught by surprise when they learned that theirdata received attention elsewhere. Again, a quotation from Professor Tanasawa’s recollections:
Immediately after the 2nd World War, an American chemist,
Dr. Fox, called on Professor Nukiyama. Dr. Fox asked him
earnestly how the research on the point of maximum boilingrate had been developing in Japan and what results were obtained. At that time, Professor Nukiyama and I, who happened
to sit with him, could not understand what Dr. Fox meant by
his question and had to answer him that we had stopped the research. We learned, however, after a considerable time after our
meeting, that an extensive study on the boiling heat transfer was
being conducted in the U.S.A., because the cooling performanceof a boiling water type nuclear reactor was restricted at the pointof maximum boiling rate, but that a complete solution had not
yet been obtained.

Many heat transfer researchers outside of Japan came toknow this experimental feat through the textbook Heat Transfer
authored by Professor Max Jakob and published in 1949 [4].
Professor Tanasawa continued: “In his book [4] on page 655, it
was written: ‘Nukiyama [1], using a platinum wire, 0.14 mm indiameter, seems to have been the first to succeed in obtaining
a substantially complete boiling curve with a maximum boilingrate at θs ≈ 45◦ C.”’ The entire curve came to be called the“Nukiyama curve.” Professor Nukiyama received the ASME
Max Jakob Memorial Award in 1968.
From the 1950s onward, the boiling heat transfer research
picked up momentum in Japan partly because the developmentof nuclear power reactors became a national endeavor. At Tohoku University some of the graduates of the Nukiyama “kohza” resumed and expanded boiling research programs. Professors Tanasawa and Takeo Takeyama were senior members of the
Tohoku group. Elsewhere, the University of Tokyo and Kyushu
University were early strongholds of boiling heat transfer research. Because of its historical role as a national center oftechnology developments, the University of Tokyo provided thegovernment with the service of engineering faculty members as
overseers of nuclear technology developments. Professor Hideo
Uchida played a key role in the early phase of this effort. Later,
Professor Yoshiro Katto joined the faculty, and he and his gradheat transfer engineeringuate students established a long tradition of boiling heat transfer
research there. At Kyushu University the research was motivatedmainly by the development of high-temperature, high-pressureboilers for fossil-fuel-powered plants. Professors Kiyoshi Yamagata and Kaneyasu Nishikawa formed a senior/junior pair that
played a key role in establishing the tradition of boiling heattransfer research in Kyushu.
The Heat Transfer Society of Japan established the Nukiyama
Memorial Award at the juncture of its 50th anniversary in memory of our outstanding pioneer. The first award was presented in
2012.

EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIETY IN PERSPECTIVE
The HTSJ started with 170 members plus 3 corporate support
members in 1961. As of 2011, it has 1,118 members and 43
corporate members. The growth of membership over the past
50 years is shown in Figure 3, where the data are normalized by
the membership of 2000. The years when the major events were
held are also indicated. Among the events, the legal mattersconcerning the Society’s name and registration were alreadymentioned in the previous section. The first national heat transfer
symposium was held in Kyoto in 1964, with 29 presentations
and 235 participants. Since then, the symposium has been held
every year, rotating the meeting location around the major cities.
The annual symposium is the most popular event of the Society.
The first major international event for the Society was the fifthInternational Heat Transfer Conference (IHTC) held in Tokyoin 1974. The first Japan–U.S. Heat Transfer Seminar was heldin Tokyo in 1980. The IHTC will return to Japan in 2014.
From the curve of Figure 3 we observe that the Society has
undergone two phases of growth; a high growth phase that spansthe 1960s to the 1980s, and a flat growth phase of recent years.

Figure 3 Growth of HTSJ membership over the years and the Society’s major
events. (Color figure available online.)

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The general feature of the membership curve coincides withthat of Japan’s population curve. Hence, the arrival of the flat
phase appears inevitable in this respect. A more fundamental
factor is the diversification of technological and scientific interests that has been accelerated in recent decades. The Society forbasic science and engineering like heat transfer has had to see
human and funding resources being diverted to other emerging
sectors. When the Society started, the development of the nation’s industrial base was a major objective of basic science andengineering.
In Figure 4 the curves representing two base industries aresuperposed on the membership curve [5]. One of the curves
shows the production volume of petrochemical products. The
other is the power generation by nuclear reactors. Both data
sets are normalized by the respective numbers of 2000. The
design of large systems requires the accumulation of basic science and engineering data. For example, the development ofboiling-type nuclear reactors needed the data on boiling heattransfer on fuel rods. Petrochemical plants are in essence large
heat exchanger systems, and their design is based on fundamental understanding of forced convection and phase-change heattransfer. Besides these two examples, fossil-fuel power plants,
power delivery networks, steel mills, coal mines, and transportation systems needed renovation and upgrading. Buildup of theseheavy industries became the national priority. The engineeringschools bore the responsibility of supplying engineers for thenational effort. Heat transfer was regarded as one of the key disciplines, and the heat transfer “koh-za”s of various universities
became popular destinations for students to perform graduate
and postgraduate studies. The growth of the Society’s membership in the 1960s and the 1970s resulted from the growing
population of heat transfer engineers in the industry, as wellas that of researchers in the universities and the government
laboratories.
Once the industrial infrastructure reached a certain level ofmaturity, the consumer industries were the next driver of economic growth. Refrigerators and air conditioners became thenecessary items for households. The curve showing the production volume of air-conditioners is superposed on the mem-

Figure 4 Production volume of petrochemical products and the capacity of
nuclear power generation in Japan, superposed with the HTSJ membershipcurve. (Color figure available online.)heat transfer engineering

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Figure 5 Production volume of air conditioners and that of computers, superposed with the HTSJ membership curve. (Color figure available online.)bership curve in Figure 5. According to the statistics [5], theproduction volume of air conditioners increased fivefold from1970 to 1980. Automobiles also became the rapidly growing
items, and their production doubled during the same period. The
design and production of compact heat exchangers held the key
to the competitiveness of these consumer products. The efforts
to make heat exchangers more compact were sustained by engineers, many of whom were the graduates of heat transfer “kohza”s. In this period several manufacturers in the air-conditioning
and refrigeration industry came to join the Society as corporate support members. The representatives of these companies
were the alumni of heat transfer “koh-za”s, and they served as
the industry/academia liaisons, transmitting industrial needs totheir academic colleagues through the Society’s seminars andcommittees.
Arrival of the information age brought wide and deep impacts on various aspects of our life and work. The most visible
benefit for science and engineering was brought by the development of large-scale high-performance computers that enabled
the analysis of complex physical processes and the design oflarge complex systems through numerical simulations. With increasing speed and capacity of calculations rendered by thesecomputers, the heat generation rate had increased. In the 1980s
the problem of heat generation in computers became so serious that cooling computers emerged as one of the key areas ofheat transfer research. Meanwhile, advances in electronics technology engendered various classes of electronic devices andequipment for diverse applications. Desktop computers, laptop
computers, and mobile phones came into being as the tools of
everyday use. So-called embedded devices made refrigerators,
air conditioners, automobiles, and other machinery more efficient and smooth-running. Proliferation of electronic devices
and equipment has led to diversification of heat transfer problems arising from them. Researchers and engineers working on
thermal management of electronic equipment have rapidly increased. Figure 5 includes the curve showing the production volume of computers. From the comparison with the membership
growth curve we surmise that by the time the industry needed
human resources to tackle diverse heat transfer problems, thepopulation of heat transfer engineers has grown to a sufficientlevel owing to the investments made earlier in the heat transfer
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W. NAKAYAMA“koh-za”s. The session for electronics cooling papers has become a regular feature at the national heat transfer symposium
since the 1980s.
From Figures 3–5 we observe that the various growth curves
are flat to the right of around 2000. For the production volumesof industrial products, their saturations can be partly attributed
to the shift of manufacturing facilities to overseas locations.
Another major factor is the stagnant economy after the bust of
the bubble economy at the start of the 1990s. Such economic
developments were overlapped by the emergence of new professional societies that carved out their own shares from the
population of scientists and engineers. Some of these new societies are offshoots of the traditional societies but more focusedon specific areas of research: a society of multi-phase flow, thatof thermophysical properties, and that of flow visualization aresome examples. Others are the responses to the developmentsof new frontiers of science and technology such as micro- andnanoscale technologies, or renewed needs for energy-related research, such as solar energy utilization. Thus, for the existingsocieties the environment has changed a great deal, and themembership saturation is not a problem of the HTSJ alone. To
think about the future of the Society we first accept the environment we are placed in, then consider the meaning of growth inyears ahead. In my talk at the symposium in Okayama and in
the article for the HTSJ Journal I proposed my view on the issueof “how the Society will adapt to a changing environment.” Thefollowing is an excerpt.

• The Society will not get back on the fast growth track. This is nota pessimistic view, but recognition of the historical consequence.
We had passed the phase where the primary objective of research
was aligned with the development of basic industrial infrastructure.
The design of large systems constituting the industrial infrastructure required solid understanding of the physics involved in theiroperations. Such industrial needs provided an environment for theacademics to pursue scientific interests in narrowly defined modesof heat transfer phenomena. The “koh-za” was often identified withthe mode of heat transfer on which its research was focused, suchas forced convection, boiling, condensation, radiation, etc. Furthermore, long term research was permitted in the era of heavy industry
developments. The “koh-za” system served well in conducting longterm research. When the professor reached the retirement age, theassistant professor took over the “koh-za” and continued their research. In this way the theme and the methodology of research havebeen carried over from one generation to the next. In the meantime,the “koh-za” produced graduates, and some of them chose to pursue
academic careers in the expanding university system of the 1960s
through the 1980s. Many of them continued to work in the same
field of research of the “koh-za” where they came from. The national
heat transfer symposium still has many presentations in the modespecific sessions such as forced convection, boiling, condensation,
radiation, etc. As pointed out in the previous paragraph, several factors converged to end the era of quantitative expansion, including themembership of HTSJ. Also, the “koh-za” system had been dismantled over a period of about ten years since the mid-1990s. Obviously,
we have no luxury of assuming the future as an extension of the past.

heat transfer engineering• The end of quantitative expansion is not the end of progress. Ample
opportunities for heat transfer research are opening up in various
emerging fields of science and technology. New materials, renewable energy, biotechnology, and novel electronic devices are somesamples of rapidly growing fields which cannot be developed without the commitments of heat transfer researchers. The HTSJ alreadyhas many members who have been working on the topics of theseemerging fields. The national heat transfer symposium has seen theincrease of the sessions devoted to new subjects. Since the 1990s thesession on “Molecular Dynamics Simulation” has become a popular feature of the national symposium. Also, the sessions for solar
energy, environment-friendly refrigerants, heat transfer in microgravity, biotechnology, food processing, and agriculture have been
introduced. These subjects are interdisciplinary in their nature. In
an attempt to participate in the development of new science andtechnology one has to acquire at least introductory knowledge ofthe emerging field of one’s interest, and develop a research program which responds properly to the arising needs for heat transfer
research. A joint research program involving researchers and engineers of different disciplines is becoming a common format ofcollaboration. In such environment one finds few seniors to whom
one solicits guidance as in the “koh-za” era. Instead, researchers haveto chart their own course of research by absorbing interdisciplinary
knowledge and through consultation with their colleagues in otherfields. Communications between scientists and engineers of different
disciplines are gaining unprecedented importance. Just as different
parts of the world are increasingly integrated by the Internet, different disciplines of science and engineering are going to be more
tightly coupled. We are now in the phase of horizontal integration
after we came through the phase of vertical growth. Obviously, weneed a new measure of growth or success in place of the quantitative
growth curve which has served as a central measure in our value
system for so long. We have not yet worked out any concrete idea
about a measure of growth in the new era. Neither have we worked
out an action plan by which we stimulate the growth of HTSJ on
a possible new measure of success. However, one thing is obvious
and assuring. That is, the importance of heat transfer research will
never diminish but increase in diverse fields of science and engineering. The HTSJ can play a role of the information hub where diverse
proposals for heat transfer research flow in and research results flowout in different directions for potential applications. At the national
symposium in Toyama (May, 2012) a special session was held todiscuss the future of the Society.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSIn the postwar economic situation an overseas trip was anextremely expensive venture for Japanese researchers. The currency rate was fixed at 360 yens per U.S. dollar until 1971. At
the first International Heat Transfer Conference held in 1951, in
London, Professor Tokuro Mizushina, Kyoto University, wasthe only presenter from Japan. In the 1950s helping hands
came mainly from the United States in the form of scholarships for Japanese researchers. The Fulbright scholarship sent
many scholars to the United States. Also, Germany and France
provided the opportunities for overseas study through their funding agencies. By the time the HTSJ was founded the economic
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situation had improved somewhat, and the Science Council ofJapan (SCJ) had some budget to promote international interactions. Since the HTSJ was registered as a subordinate branch of
the SCJ at the outset, it received a dividend of improved situations. Overseas stays or trips to meetings in the postwar era gavethe HTSJ founding members the opportunities to get acquainted
with their seniors and peers in the United States and Europe.
Thus, the developed personal bonds led to the early admittanceof Japan into the international heat transfer community.
It was a few years before the fourth International Heat Transfer Conference (Paris, 1970) that the Assembly for the IHTC(“the Assembly”) was formed. From Japan, professors Niich
Nishiwaki, University of Tokyo, and Tokuro Mizushina, Kyoto
University, joined the Assembly. Later, the Assembly voted forTokyo to be the site of the fifth IHTC in 1974. The organizing committee was formed under the umbrella of SCJ in orderto smooth the process of fund raising and other preparations.
The committee members were the key members of HTSJ: chair,Niichi Nishiwaki (Tokyo); vice-chairs, Hideo Uchida (Tokyo),Fujio Tachibana (Tokyo), Tokuro Mizushina (Kyoto); secretary,
Yoshiro Katto (Tokyo); paper review, Yasuo Mori (Tokyo Institute of Technology); program, Satoshi Sato (Kyoto); proceedings, Mitsunobu Ogasawara (Osaka). There were other wellknown professors who participated in the organization efforts
through various functions or as the representatives of the collab-

orative societies such as Nuclear Energy, Space and Aeronautical, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, and Architecture. The
conference was held in Tokyo during September 3–7, 1974, with
8 keynote presentations, 330 paper presentations, and 649 participants. The HTSJ has continued to serve as an organizational
window for the IHTC Assembly to this day.
In 1961, the same year as the HTSJ founding, the Agreementof Science and Technology Cooperation was signed between
Japan and the United States. Twenty years later the heat transfer
researchers of both countries used this channel to stage the firstJapan–U.S. Heat Transfer Seminar in Tokyo. The funds camefrom the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Figure 6 is agroup photo taken on that occasion. Only those professors on
the front row are identified here: from left, Nishikawa, Westwater, Sato, Rohsenow, Katto, Yang, Mori, Goldstein, Ueda, andAung. Other well-known professors were seen in the back rows.
The meeting, entitled “Heat Transfer in Energy Problems,” washeld during September 29–October 2, 1980, in Tokyo, with 57
participants from Japan and 13 from the United States. Since
this first meeting the Japan/U.S. Heat Transfer Seminar has been
held on various themes, and has become an additional channelof international interactions for HTSJ members.
As noted previously, the initial development of international
relations for the HTSJ depended much on personal contacts

Figure 6 A group photo at the first Japan–U.S. Heat Transfer Seminar, Tokyo, 1980. (Color figure available online.)heat transfer engineering

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cultivated between the Japanese and U.S. researchers. SomeU.S. researchers came to stay in Japan for extended periods on
various occasions, and contributed to building up networks ofresearchers in both countries. Notable among them were Professor Warren H. Giedt, University of California at Berkeley (later
Davis), and Professor Wen J. Yang, University of Michigan. Professor Giedt came to stay at the University of Tokyo for 6 months
in 1963. His name was already known to Japanese researchers
through his textbook Principles of Engineering Heat Transfer[6] translated by Drs. Susumu Yokobori and Osamu Kuga. Professor Giedt came back to Japan several times, and also hosted
the stay of more than 10 Japanese researchers at his laboratory over the years. Professor W. J. Yang had an experience of
graduate study in the laboratory of Professor Fujio Tachibana at
the University of Tokyo. His proficiency in Japanese language
won him the acquaintance with a broad range of heat transfer researchers in Japan. Many researchers came to stay in hislaboratory at the University of Michigan. He served as an international bond not only for Japanese researchers but also thosein other Asian countries. He and Professor Yasuo Mori, Tokyo
Institute of Technology, organized the first ASME/JSME Thermal Engineering Joint Conference in Honolulu during March
20–24, 1983, with 250 papers and 360 participants. With participants from Asian countries the conference became a firstof the Pan-Pacific conferences that are now routinely held on
various themes. Professor Yang established the HTSJ Young
Researchers Prize in 2001.
For the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer(ICHMT), originally established in Yugoslavia and now locatedin Turkey, the Japanese researchers made commitments in theearly phase. A letter from Professor E. A. Brun, Universityof Paris, then President of the IHTC Assembly, to Professors
Nishiwaki and Mizushina inquired about the commitment ofJapanese researchers to the summer seminar planned in Yugoslavia in 1967. The HTSJ became the official interface with
the Yugoslavia seminar. Shortly after, the seminar grew into a
center with an overseeing structure named the Scientific Council. Professor Masaru Hirata, University of Tokyo, performed an
important function of communication with the center organizers and made the arrangement within HTSJ. In 1971 professors
Mizushina, Mori, and Nishiwaki formally joined the ScientificCouncil. Professor Mori served as president of the ScientificCouncil during 1990–1994. Professor Kenjiro Suzuki, Kyoto
University, served as chairman of the Executive Committee(2004–2006), and Professor Nobuhide Kasagi is serving as vicepresident (2010–2014). Currently, Japan has 19 members in the
Scientific Council.
The achievements of Japanese researchers have been internationally recognized by prominent awards: ASME Max Jakob
Memorial Award, to S. Nukiyama (1968), N. Nishiwaki (1979),
and Y. Mori (1988); ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, to
Y. Mori (1982) and W. Nakayama (1992); Luikov Medal, to
Y. Mori (1988) and M. Hirata (2004); ASME Melville Medal,
to A. Sakurai, M. Shiotsu, and K. Hata; ICHMT FellowshipAward, to W. Nakayama (1996) and K. Suzuki (2002); ASME
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Touloukian Award, to A. Nagashima (2000) and K. Watanabe(2009); the Nusselt-Reynolds Prize, to M. Shoji (2005); and theWilliam Begell Medal, to N. Kasagi (2010).
The HTSJ has introduced the international session at the national heat transfer symposium since 1995. The invited speakers
at the 1995 session were Professor Z.-Y. Guo, Tsinghua University, China, and Professor J. M. Hyun, Korean Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology. In 1996, Professor S. H.
Winoto, National University of Singapore, and Professor G. J.
Hwang, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan, were invited. In
subsequent years invitations have been extended to renowned
scholars in other countries. The HTSJ also initiated the International Forum of Heat Transfer in 2004 and has made it
an annual event. The 2004 forum was held in Kyoto, with 8
keynote presentations and 150 paper presentations. This forum
is focused on hot topics such as nanoscale heat transfer, and isdesigned to promote intimate discussions between participantsin a Japanese-style informal atmosphere.

INDUSTRY/ACADEMIA COLLABORATION
Scanning through the issues of the HTSJ Journal I am impressed by how the issue of industry/academia collaboration has
occupied the minds of members in both academia and industry.
Many articles on this issue have been written by various authors
over the years; the first issue of the journal already had one. In
the early years direct collaboration was difficult, at least on thesurface. In the postwar atmosphere of the Japanese campuses,
academic independence was given top priority, and any overt
commitment by the faculty to a corporate sponsored research
project had to be avoided. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, the “koh-za” system guaranteed autonomy in research;hence, if one chose, one could do any research without regard
to the industrial needs of the day. However, there were collaborations in broader interpretations, rather than direct joint
research efforts with industrial partners. In the era of industrial
infrastructure development the results of basic research produced by the academics were useful in some ways to engineers
who needed heat transfer data in the design of large systems.
Furthermore, some of the academics were recruited by the government ministries to serve on the committees that oversaw thenational industrial development efforts. On the committees they
could hear research needs from the industrial members and acquired information on the technologies in need. Such knowledge
was fed to the plan of research programs in the campus. Most
importantly, there were personal bonds fostered by the “kohza” system between the academics and their former students.
In the Japanese engineering schools everyone has to belong toa particular “koh-za” at his/her fourth year of undergraduate
studies and experience a one-year research term. (This systemis still kept, even after the “koh-za” was disbanded to current
more atomic units.) Thus, every engineer feels personal bonds
to his/her mentor, research staff, and those seniors, peers, andvol. 34 nos. 5–6 2013

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juniors who came through the same “koh-za.” It has been common that those in the industry come back to their home “koh-za”
and ask for technical guidance from their former mentors. Suchpersonal interactions do not entail any financial commitment on
the part of the industrial employer, let alone legal arrangement
for information sharing. Informal interactions were relatively
easy in the early years when the technical information was concerned with basic heat transfer physics; hence, the interaction
involved least the possibility of conflict of proprietary right.
The situation has changed gradually since around the mid1970s. Consumer markets grew, and the competition between
manufacturers intensified. Protection of proprietary information
has become a matter of concern for researchers and engineers
in the industry. Meanwhile, the industry developed its researchpotential thanks to the expansion of graduate schools since the1960s. Major manufacturers developed their pool of heat transfer researchers, and the work for current products could be
handled by in-house research. The results of research are often reported at the national heat transfer symposium, but after
the patent filings are processed, to protect proprietary information. For the academics, heat transfer problems arising fromconsumer products are often difficult to work on due to involvement of many factors. Constraints by manufacturing andassembling technologies and cost considerations need to be understood. Actual geometries of heat transfer surfaces and coolant
paths are complex, so that modeling methodologies need to be
developed. The situation makes it difficult to design research
programs to be completed in a year or two. This is particularly
challenging for a professor who has to assign research programs to fourth-year undergraduates who come to experience
one year of research. On the other hand, the funding situation
for the academics has changed. The days of free funding for the“koh-za” are gone. Instead, one has to apply for funding witha proposal of a specific research program. There is a way to
get large funds from the Ministry of Education, Science, andTechnology: that is, to form a group with colleagues and propose a large umbrella project. The referee committee of theministry is staffed largely by those in the fields of basic science,
mostly physicists and chemists. Naturally, proposals on basic
science subjects are assumed to have advantages. Besides, theinterest in fundamental physics has been a strong undercurrent
in the minds of engineering faculty members since the era ofindustrial development, and it is now strengthened by the rapid
growth of nanoscale sciences. Today, there are many research
topics reported at HTSJ meetings and symposia that border on
those of fundamental physics. Such a bent on physics is viewed
favorably by those researchers in the industry who look for revolutionary ideas for future product development. On the other
hand, there are engineers who need solutions to somewhat moremundane engineering problems. For them the current trend ofincreasing weight on fundamental physics seems to mirror awidening gap between industry and academia. In an attempt topromote industry/academia communications within the HTSJ I
proposed in 1994 the formation of a committee named Forge
Industrial Liaison to Generic Academic Problems (FILGAP).
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417

The objective is to encourage industrial members to make efforts in narrowing the industry/academia gap. The reason for
asking industrial members to make steps toward academia isthat they are in a position to do the job of tailoring actual engineering problems into those suitable for academic studies.
Some colleagues have taken my proposal seriously, and havestimulated discussions among the HTSJ members through the
FILGAP committee activities. The job is understandably quite
challenging, and will need some more time for various ideas toconverge to any concrete action plan.
While the industry/academia gap seems widening as described in the previous paragraph, there have been developmentsthat act to close the gap. One of the developments is the increasing migration of researchers from the industry to teaching jobs
in the campus. The population of heat transfer researchers in
the industry had increased during the 1960s through the 1980s
almost in phase with the growth of HTSJ membership (Figure 3). Since the late 1980s onward an increasing number of
researchers have reached their fifties. The mid-fifties is the age
customarily set for Japanese companies to arrange the relocationof their mid-level employees to somewhere outside the company.
It has become a customary pattern that a researcher who madeenough research records in the industry finds a teaching job ina university. By the time such migrations became possible, thecampus atmosphere had drastically changed from that of the
1950s and 1960s. It became more hospitable to corporate funding of academic research. Particularly in the bubble economy of
the late 1980s, the amount of corporate donations to universities increased. For those researchers who landed teaching jobs,
an arrangement was often made to attach research funds fromtheir former employers for several years after the job landing.
In this way, the knowledge flow from the industry to the campus
has been increased, but the beneficiaries are mostly students
who experience the work on topics carried over by their mentors from the industry. Interactions between those arrivals fromthe industry and those home-grown individuals are less likely,
as far as research work is concerned. However, there are somecases where a group project involves both industry-bred andhome-grown researchers, necessarily promoting their dialogue.
There are still some other channels through which the academics can learn the state of the art of technologies in the industry. The Japanese graduate schools have traditionally admitted
the application of a doctoral thesis from an individual in the industry without requirements for school attendance. The thesis is
examined by the panel of examiners in the light of its academic
merit, and the applicant undergoes oral examinations and thesis
defense sessions. The occasion of thesis examination is also theopportunity for the examiners to learn the industrial needs, as
the thesis contains background information of the work in theindustry. This type of interactions has been enhanced by anotherdoctoral program that has become popular since the mid-1990s
in many engineering schools. In the recent program the applicant
is required to come to work at the thesis adviser’s laboratory inhours of one’s convenience, and at the same time attend requisite classes. The interactions between the applicant, the adviser,
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W. NAKAYAMA

Figure 7 Number of presentations at the annual Heat Transfer Symposium:
the total number and the number of reports on heat transfer equipment. (Color
figure available online.)

and the laboratory staff become personal, and in many cases thelaboratory work involves a few graduate students, giving thema taste of industrial research work.
Today, the presentations at the annual national heat transfer
symposium spread over a wide range of topics, from fundamental physics of nanoscale heat transfer to thermal design ofindustrial products. Figure 7 shows the trends of presentations
at the national symposium. In phase with the growth of HTSJ
membership, the number of total presentations rose until the
mid-1990s, and has settled at a level of 400 in recent years.
Among these the reports on heat transfer equipment amount toaround 100. The ratio 4 to 1 is considered to indicate the current
level of interests in engineering heat transfer problems held byJapanese heat transfer researchers.

CONCLUDING NOTESIn 1961, I enrolled in the graduate school of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and joined the “koh-za” of Professor Yasuo
Mori. Racing my thought from the past to the present I have an
impression that the most impressive are the advances in researchtools. I remember the work I did with a couple of fellow students
in one summer. We worked as research assistants for Professor
Mori to solve the problem of forced/natural mixed convection
heat transfer on a flat plate. The equations are nonlinear, and theRunge–Kutta method was employed to obtain numerical solutions. The tools available for us were several manually operated
calculation machines. After this experience, rapid evolutions ofcalculation tools have followed in the subsequent years. Calculation machines driven by electric motors came and went.
Carrying a box of punched cards to the computer center was
the next experience. Today, my desktop computer can do almost
all the calculations I need to perform for my research work.
My thesis work involved the measurement of air velocity of theorder of 1 m/s and less [7]. I found a Chattock tilting pressuregauge in the dusty attic of the laboratory building, cleaned it,
and connected it to a Pitot tube. It was extremely sensitive toheat transfer engineering

atmospheric temperature and pressure. The building admitted
external air leaking through the ill-fitted windows and doors.
I had to construct an elaborate structure around the gauge toshield it from temperature and pressure fluctuations. Today, thelaboratories of the mechanical engineering departments of theTokyo Institute are housed in a modern building and have stableinternal environment. In addition, the advent of particle image
velocimetry has made the measurement of complex low-speed
air flow a far more efficient undertaking. In my student days
I often wandered into the engineering department’s library insearch of literature. The library was located in the basement,
and the air was damp, making the search work sometimes uncomfortable. Today, I can download a paper published decades
ago to my laptop anywhere I work.
Convenience, efficiency, and comfort brought by the technological advancements are certainly welcome and joyous experiences for the researchers of my generation. I wonder, if I
were born into the current generation of graduate students, howwould I perceive things around me? I would take these fruitsof technological development for granted. I would be used tothe acceleration of changes in almost everything in the sphereof my life and work, so I would expect more changes to come.
Floods of information on emerging fields of research would letme wonder whether there is any more fascinating research area
than the one I am currently committed to. When I focus on a
specific area of research, I would be overwhelmed by a flood of
related papers published in journals or presented at numerous
conferences, and anticipate tough competition waiting ahead in
my career. In the meantime, the urgency in solving global energy
and environmental problems would make me conscious of theneed to work faster. Articles forecasting the world population,
the depletion of fossil fuels, the aging of the Japanese society,and other worrisome issues would incite uneasiness in my mind.
I would harbor in the corner of my mind anticipation that some
big hurdles, social as well as technological, would loom tall in
20–30 years from now. Immersed in such environment full of
rapid changes, mounting challenges, and uneasiness, I wouldfind myself thinking and behaving differently from earlier generations.
The HTSJ will be the society for those people belonging
to the era characterized by dynamism, urgency, globalization,interconnectedness, and more. The Society has to adapt to generational turnover of its members, which brings in different
ways of thinking and working. The Society’s future will be thesubject of continuous discussion in years ahead. I hope that theSociety’s history summarized in this article will serve as oneof the reference materials in thinking about the future. Like
many other histories, the history of HTSJ is about the people
and their achievements. In addition, the history is the recordof developments produced interactively by the people and theever-changing social and technological environments. This is asubject of study, equally as fascinating as the subjects of heattransfer science and engineering. To me, most fascinating are
the people. While writing this article I recalled the avuncularfaces of the senior scholars from whom I received guidance andvol. 34 nos. 5–6 2013

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inspirations, and with whom I enjoyed talking and drinking.
Many of the early-generation scholars have left this world, andsome have been in ill health. Also, the bright faces of young
colleagues flashed up from time to time. We are all bound to thesurface of the fourth dimension called “time” that is relentlessly
marching in one direction. I feel my great luck in having lived
through the period of HTSJ evolution and getting acquainted
with people of different generations along the way.
REFERENCES[1] Nukiyama, S., The Maximum and Minimum Values ofthe Heat Q Transmitted from Metal to Boiling Water under Atmospheric Pressure, Journal of the Japan Societyof Mechanical Engineers, vol. 37, no. 206, pp. 367–374,
1934. The English translation was published twice in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 9,
pp. 1419–1433, 1966, and vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 959–970,
1984.
[2] Nakayama, W., The Nukiyama Curve: Its Impact on Heat
Transfer Science and Engineering, Proc. ASME/JSME
Thermal Engineering Joint Conference, Honolulu, HI,
vol. 1, pp. 437–440, 1991.
[3] HEAT, Collection of Papers by Nukiyama Shiro, ed. Y.
Tanasawa, Nukiyama Shiro Collected Papers Publication
Committee, 1969 (in Japanese).
[4] Jakob, M., Heat Transfer, John Wiley & Sons, New York,1949.
[5] Viewing Japan’s 100 Years through Numbers, Nihon Kokusei Zue (Japan National Statistics), 2006.

heat transfer engineering

419[6] Giedt, W. H., Principles of Engineering Heat Transfer, Van
Nostrand, Princeton, NJ, 1957.
[7] Mori, Y., and Nakayama, W., Study on Forced Convective
Heat Transfer in Curved Pipes (1st Report, Laminar Region), International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,vol. 8, pp. 67–82, 1965.
Wataru Nakayama received his doctor of engineering degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in1966. In 1970 he began a 20-year strong career with
Hitachi’s Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory. While at Hitachi, he conducted and supervisedheat transfer research for a wide range of products including heat exchangers and computers. In 1989, hebecame the Hitachi Chair Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), a position he held until his
retirement in 1996. At TIT he taught and conducted
research on microelectronic packaging with a focus on power and thermal management of computers. After his retirement from TIT he served as a visiting
professor at the University of Maryland until 2001. He is currently an independent engineering consultant. He has been active in the international professionalsocieties. He co-chaired and helped organize several international conferences.
He wrote extensively on heat transfer equipment and thermal managementof electronic equipment, and authored and co-authored several books on thesubjects. He has received many prominent awards, including the ASME Heat
Transfer Memorial Award (1992), the ICHMT Fellowship Award (1996), theASME Electrical and Electronic Packaging Division Award (now Allan Kraus
Memorial Award) (1996), the JSME Award for Longstanding Contributions to
Mechanical Engineering (1997), the ITHERM Achievement Award (2000), theInterPack Achievement Award (2001), the Thermi Award (2006), and the JSME
Funai Special Award (2007). He is a fellow of the ASME, a fellow of the IEEE,a life member of JSME, and an honorary member of the Heat Transfer Societyof Japan. He served as president of the Heat Transfer Society of Japan in 1994.
He was an associate editor of Heat Transfer Engineering until 2012.

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