“Your Life Is Short and Important”

As part of my work with IEEE’s Electrical Insulation magazine, I interview members of the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) and related societies about their work and lives. In this profile, I spoke with Dr. Toshikatsu Tanaka.

Now in his second retirement, Dr. Toshikatsu Tanaka finally has time to delve into Japanese history, practice tai chi, and reflect on his career. Not that he has stopped working; he is simply working a little less. In a conversation covering everything from Portuguese desserts to philosophy, we discussed his devotion to research and a passion for sharing knowledge. His is a career defined by scientific study and elevated by collaboration. While conducting internationally recognized research, he connected Japan's scientists with the rest of the world, helping advance his country's power industry, shining a light on their own research, and developing life-long friendships along the way.

While studying materials science and electrical engineering at Osaka University, Toshikatsu Tanaka was at a crossroads. It was the mid-1960s and many of his peers wanted to work as materials scientists for emerging electronics companies. He and his fellow students had received compelling offers in this field. Few were considering the power sector.

However, Japan's power industry was also at an inflection point. The country needed more energy to fuel its rapid economic growth. Advanced materials like polymers were expected to be used in power cables and power apparatus. The opportunities seemed limitless.

At the time, Tanaka was studying under Professor Yoshio Inuishi, the man who would eventually be recognized as the father of the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society of Japan. Under Inuishi's guidance, Tanaka was researching radiation damage of silicon semiconductors. For Tanaka, energy versus electronics was a choice of “evolution rather than revolution.” Knowing he wanted the freedom to select his own areas of research and have time to think, he chose the evolutionary path of the electric power industry.

That choice served him well. Polymer research became the focus of his career. As a PhD student he researched the high field conduction of polyethylene, which would later be used as power cable insulation. He then spent 40 years at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan's research center for the electric power sector, advancing from materials scientist to vice president, including work as the project leader on a 12-year, large-scale project on lithium battery systems.