Award Winner

Starting in 1939, scientists in Japan gathered to decide on the best way to build an electron microscope. After World War II this group would come to be led by Kenji Kazato and Kazuo Ito, who had met during the war while working at the Navy Central Research Institute. Following the war, they realized that Japan’s reconstruction would depend on home-grown advances in science and technology. This led them to work on a prototype of an electron microscope, which resulted in 1947 in their development of a magnetic field type electron microscope – the DA-1. In 1949, Kazato and Ito led their team to found Japan Electron Optics Laboratory Company (JEOL). Kazato presided over the ten-person company.

Just a few months after the company’s founding, they brought to market JEOL’s first electron microscope, the model JEM-1. This model was an improved version of the instrument they had developed in 1947, and it proved particularly useful in researching crystallization.
Though JEOL made a name for itself in its home market, recognition from abroad would have to wait. In 1955, the company received an order from the French Atomic Energy Commission for the JEM-5G Electron Microscope. This constituted JEOL’s first order from abroad.

Building on its success in electron microscopy, JEOL would move into the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. In 1956, it launched the JNM-1, Japan’s first Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) system. The company then moved rapidly into manufacturing other types of scientific instruments, such as the electron spin resonance spectrometer as well as clinical diagnostic systems.

In 1961 the company was renamed JEOL Ltd. The following year, JEOL was listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Soon after, JEOL established its first subsidiary, JEOL Co. (USA), Inc. By 1966, JEOL was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, JEOL continued developments of electron microscopes. In 1964, it unveiled the JEM-7, which guaranteed the highest resolution at that time. It was the first electron microscope to incorporate an electrical adjustment of the lens axis. In 1968, this innovation was incorporated into the JEM-100B and its successors, in which the electro-magnetic deflection unit and the electro-magnetic stigmator were installed. Also in 1968, JEOL brought to market the JLC-5AH, the world’s first Amino Acid Analyzer. In 1976, JEOL Electron Microscope took the world’s first photomicrograph of atomic arrangement.

In 1968 Kazato was honored as chairman of the Japanese Society of Electron Microscopy. In 1975, Kazato retired as president of JEOL and became adviser until his passing in 2012. Ito served as president of JEOL from 1982 to 1987. Under his direction, JEOL made important advances in software development. In 1984, Ito established the long-term management vision “V-90” for the company’s future direction.