Prof. Akimasa Hirata of Nagoya Institute of Technology

There exists safety concern for exposure to electromagnetic fields. The adverse health effect due to electromagnetic field has been summarized in documents of World Health Organization. To protect the human from electromagnetic fields, a two-tier approach has then been applied in our daily life. First, the exposure standards are developed based on the threshold of adverse health effect. The limit of induced physical quantities in the human body, such as induced electric field and specific absorption rate (SAR), are derived considering the reduction (safety) factor. The safety of the products should be assessed following the method of product standards. In this lecture, the relationship between these two types of standards is discussed including the rationale from engineering viewpoint from extremely low frequencies to millimeter waves. Recent standardization related to 5G wireless communications system is also summarized. In addition, the research necessity in this research field is mentioned.

Biography:

Prof. Hirata (S’98–M’01–SM’10–F’17) received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degree in communications engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Japan, in 1996, 1998, and 2000, respectively. From 1999 to 2001, he was a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and also a Visiting Research Scientist at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada, in 2000. In 2001, he joined the Department of Communications Engineering, Osaka University, as an Assistant Professor. In 2004, he moved to Nagoya Institute of Technology where he is currently a Full Professor and Director of Research Center. His research interests include electromagnetic safety, EMC, antennas, filters, risk management system for heat-related illness, methods in neuroscience, and related computational techniques. Prof. Hirata is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on EMC and an editorial board member of Physics in Medicine and Biology.

He is a member of the main commission and Chair of a project group of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) since 2015, a member of its administrative committee and a subcommittee (EMF Dosimetry Modeling), Chair of IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) since 2014, and an expert of the World Health Organization. From 2006 to 2012, he was also an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. He received several awards including Young Scientists’ Prize (2006) and Prizes for Science and Technology (Research Category 2011, Public Understanding Promotion Category 2014, 2020) by the Commendation for Science and Technology from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. In 2015, he received the IEEE EMC-S Technical Achievement Award as well as the Japan Academy Medal and JSPS Prize (2018). He is a Fellow of Institute of Physics and IEICE.

Email: