12) “Chance” and “Luck” in Research
Picture: Hayashi speaking at Bell Laboratories with university students from
Israel
Izuo Hayashi, who was successful in developing room-temperature
continuous oscillation semiconductor lasers, returned to Japan on this occasion
and became the NEC Central Research Institute Fellow and then the head of
Tsukuba Research Center of Optical Technology Research and Development.
I had several opportunities to interview and to exchange views on technology
theory and research methodology, and we often had some heated conversations,
which made time fly by. Here are some of the stories that I took notes of
at the time.
"In my 50 years of research, a lot of these elements worked by chance.
While doing research on the cyclotron oscillator at the Nuclear Institute
of the University of Tokyo, I had an overwhelming desire to see the development
of electronics in the United States with my own eyes, so I decided to go to
the US. At the Bell laboratories, I received an order from chief research
director Galt, saying, "Get to work on the semiconductor laser research."
and with that, I took this unexpected opportunity."
"We need good luck for innovative discoveries and inventions, but I think
that the qualities of researchers are closely related to whether or not they
seize these opportunities."
"If there are ten researchers, it is important to give one or two excellent
ones among them the chances to work on themes like dreams. The problem is
that although there are excellent research managers, there are few people
with foresight in the top management."
The Photo is of Hayashi (far right) and Panish (second person from the right)
talking with college students who came from Israel to Bell Laboratories