IDA PAYS TRIBUTE TO DR. SHOJI KIMURA

IDA PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF EMERITUS PROFESSOR SHOJI KIMURA, 1935–2020

Prof. Shoji Kimura, former emeritus professor of University of Tokyo and former president of Membrane Society of Japan, passed away on 21, May 2020 at the age of 85.

Prof. Kimura was really a pioneer and internationally renowned scholar in both areas of theory and engineering of desalination and water reuse technology.

Over the course of his career, he acted as Prof. of University of Tokyo and the president of Membrane Society of Japan, contributing to the development and spread of membrane transport of desalination technology, and also Japanese strong technologies such as distillation and membrane, from Japan to the global world.

After the graduating from University of Tokyo in 1962, completing PhD degrees in chemical engineering at the school of engineering, he went to National Research Council of Canada at Ottawa in 1965 as post doctorate fellowship under the supervision of Prof. Dr. S. Sourirajan, to collaborate on reverse osmosis especially on the membrane transport for two years.

Prof. Kimura worked as a deputy professor, full professor, and emeritus professor of University of Tokyo. After that, he became prof. of Osaka University and Kogakuin University.

He was involved in many global associations, including the International Conference on Membrane (ICOM) and International Desalination Association (IDA).

He organized the ICOM'87 at Tokyo, Japan, and ICOM'96 at Yokohama, Japan, and the IDA World Conference at Yokohama, Japan in 1993.

Prof. Kimura was awarded the President Award of International Desalination Association (IDA) for the contribution of IDA World Congress at Yokohama in 1993. He was also a board member of IDA. He served as president of the Society of Sea Science and vice president of Society of Chemical Engineering, Japan.

He was awarded the Third Prize for the orders of Sacred Treasure and Gold Rays with a Neck Ribbon from the Japanese government.

He was also awarded the award from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the award of the Society of Sea Water Science.

He was the author of countless papers and articles on desalination and water reuse.