The Akira Inoue Award was established by SEMI to recognize individuals in industry and academia, who have made significant contributions to the semiconductor industry and to society in the area of environment, health and safety. The Award honors individuals who show outstanding leadership in influencing the industry's EHS performance, and individuals who are responsible for successful process, product or material innovations that improve the industry's EHS record.

The award is named after the late Akira Inoue, past president and representative director of Tokyo Electron Limited and a former member of the SEMI Board of Directors. Akira Inoue was a champion of environmental protection and employee health and safety within the semiconductor industry. He encouraged semiconductor equipment and material suppliers, laboratories, chip manufacturers, related industry associations and government organizations to collaborate on EHS development. His efforts were instrumental in establishing the SEMI EHS Division. Mr. Inoue was an impassioned and articulate advocate of environmental responsibility and truly believed that it must permeate our industry. He felt that environmental health and safety issues should be considered for the long term, and that the current generation must not leave a tremendous bill to be paid in the future by our children and grandchildren.

Dr. Jong-Kap Kim, Chairman and CEO of Hynix Semiconductor, is the recipient of the 2009 Akira Inoue Award for outstanding achievement in environment, health and safety in the semiconductor industry. The award is sponsored by SEMI and was presented on December 1 during the SEMICON Japan President's Reception in Makuhari. More information about Dr. Kim is located here.

Past recipients of the Award are listed below;

• 2008: Atsutoshi Nishida, president and CEO of Toshiba Corporation
• 2007: Richard Templeton, president and CEO of Texas Instruments
• 2006: Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of the Semiconductor Business of Samsung Electronics and business director of the Memory Division
• 2005: Gerald G. Ermentrout, vice president and general manager of Air Products’ Electronics Division
• 2004: Isao Uchigasaki, chairman of the board of the Hitachi Chemical Company
• 2003: Saburo Kusama, president of Seiko Epson Corporation
• 2002: Dr. Farhang Shadman, Director of the Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing at the University of Arizona
• 2001: Dr. Craig R. Barrett, CEO of Intel
• 2000: Pasquale Pistorio, CEO of STMicroelectronics

Nominations for the 2010 Award are currently being accepted. Nominations criteria include demonstrated contribution, impact and strategic value.

For additional information, please contact Aaron Zude (Senior Director in San Jose).