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To the memory of Prof. Y. Kambayashi |
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IN MEMORIAM In great sadness, we announce the sudden and untimely passing away of Professor Yahiko Kambayashi due to cerebral hemorrhage at 4:42 a.m. in JST on Friday, February 6, 2004. He was at age 60. Professor Kambayashi is one of the pioneers of database research as well as the leaders of the international database research community. Professor Kambayashi completed his Ph.D. at Kyoto University in 1970. In his early academic career, Professor Kambayashi's research topics were logic circuits design, switching theory, and automata theory. From 1971 to 1973 he was a Visiting Research Associate at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he developed a logic design method called transduction method which is now widely used by major U.S. and Japanese logic design software vendors. After his return to Kyoto University as a faculty member in 1973, Professor Kambayashi started studies on databases. His early contribution in this area includes the development of quasi-consecutive retrieval files. From the late 1970s, he intensively published many papers on database theory. His major research results include an algorithm for calculation of key dependencies, new inference rules for embedded multivalued dependencies, processing methods for cyclic queries, and new concurrency control mechanisms. In 1984, he became a Professor at Kyushu University, where he extended his research area by initiating studies on geographic information systems, as well as continuing research on schema design in network data model and concurrency control. Since 1990, he has been a Professor at Kyoto University, where he conducted several practical research projects which include applications of database technologies to groupware, and distance education systems. From April 2003, he has been the Dean of Graduate School of Informatics at Kyoto University. Professor Kambayashi published numerous articles in major database journals and conferences such as Information Systems, SIGMOD, VLDB and ICDE. He also was the author and the editor of many books and conference proceedings. Professor Kambayashi was also a great educator. A record number of Japanese and foreign students received MS and Ph.D. degrees under his supervision at Kyoto University and Kyushu University. Many of them are now serving as a faculty member at universities in Japan and other countries. Professor Kambayashi also taught courses at McGill University (1979), Kuwait University (1982) and Wuhan University (1984) as a Visiting Professor. Professor Kambayashi was an IEEE fellow, a trustee of the VLDB Endowment, a member of SIGMOD Advisory Committee, a vice-chair of ACM Tokyo/Japan Chapter, the chair of DASFAA Steering Committee, a co-chair of WISE Society and WISE Steering Committee, a member of CODAS Steering Committee, a member of ER Steering Committee, a member of RIDE Steering Committee, a co-editor-in-chief of World Wide Web Journal, an associate editor of ACM TODS, and members of editorial board of several international journals. He was a winner of ACM SIGMOD Contribution Award in 1995 for his many professional services in Japan and internationally. Those who knew Professor Kambayashi remember the energy and stamina with which he not only tackled his own research issues but also supported his colleagues, staff, students, collaborators and guests. Not only profound insights and expertise, but also his friendship and generous hospitality attracted many researchers and students. Professor Kambayashi is survived by his wife and two sons. His sudden leave is not only a tragic loss to his family but also a great loss to the whole international database community. Many of us will remember him as a friend, a mentor, a leader, an educator, and our source of inspiration. We like to express our heartfelt condolence and our deepest sympathy to his family. |
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Hiroshi Ishikawa (Tokyo Metropolitan Univ.) |