Eikichi Yamashita (M'66-SM'79-F'84-LF 2000) was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1933. He received the BS degree from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan, and the MS and Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana, all in electrical engineering, in 1956, 1963, and 1966, respectively.

From 1956 to 1964, he was a member of the research staff on millimeter- wave engineering at the Electrotechnical Laboratory of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japanese Government. While on leave (1961-1963) and during the period 1964-1966, he studied in the Ultra-microwave Research Group directed by Professor Paul D. Coleman, University of Illinois, Urbana. From 1966 to 1967, he worked at the Antenna Laboratory directed by Professor George Dechamps, University of Illinois, as Research Associate. In 1967, he joined the University of Electro-Communications as Associate Professor. He became Professor in 1977, Dean of Graduate School from 1992 to 1994, and Dean of Graduate and Undergraduate School from 1996 to 1998. He is presently Professor Emeritus.

His research topics since 1956 have been principally on the device applications of electromagnetic waves, such as:

• The development of design principles for various microwave transmission lines (1956-1998), including the variational approach in the Fourier-transform domain for designing microstrip lines using computers effectively (1967).
• The development of pyroelectric-effect detectors for sub-millimeter waves (1963).
• The finding of a radiation impedance approach for the design of negative-resistance diodes with whiskers, mounted in waveguides and working as oscillators (1965).
• The finding of a design principle for microwave-bandwidth laser modulators using microstrip-line structures (1974-1988).
• The application of microwave propagation to the safety system of railroad crossings (1975).
• The application of group theory to the design of optical fibers having symmetrically distributed multiple cores (1985-1995).
• The shaping of picosecond electrical pulses using the dispersion property of microstrip lines (1991-1992).
• The finding of a design principle of array antennas on multiple- dielectric-layer structures for the millimeter-wave imaging system (1995).

Dr. Yamashita served as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on MTT from 1980 to 1984, and again from 1996 to 1997. He was elected Chairman of MTT-S Tokyo Chapter from 1985 to 1986 and a member of MTT-S AdCom from 1992 to 1997. He was Chairman of Chapter Operations Committee of IEEE Tokyo Section from 1995 to 1996. Since 1988 he has been actively working for holding Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), which is cooperatively sponsored by MTT-S, in many countries in Asia, and for holding various MTT-S meetings and workshops in the Region 10 area.

In 1998, he served as Chairman of the Organizing Committee of APMC'98 held in Yokohama, Japan.