CV

Academic and Research Positions

• Associate Professor Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan. April 2012-present
• Courtesy Faculty Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. January 2017-December 2017
• Associate Professor University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. April 2007-March 2012
• Research Associate University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. July 2006-March 2007
• Postdoctoral Researcher University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. July 2004-June 2006
• Visiting Researcher Hitachi Central Research Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan. June-December 2000
• Graduate Student Researcher University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Center for Magnetic Recording Research. June 1999-June 2004

Industry Experience

• Hardware Engineering Manager, Design Engineer, Z-World, Inc, Davis, California, USA. 1995-1998
• Design Engineer, Skyline Test Equipment, Palo Alto, California, USA. 1993-1995

Education

• Ph.D. 2004. University of California San Diego, Electrical Engineering (Communication Theory and Systems).
• M.S. 2000. University of California San Diego, Electrical Engineering.
• B.S. 1993 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, Engineering and Applied Science (Electrical Engineering).

Organizing Activies

• 2021 IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW2021) in Kanazawa, General Co-Chair
• IEEE Information Theory Society, Online Committee, Chair, 2019–2021
• IEEE Communications Society, Data Storage Technical Committee, Chair (2017-2018) and Secretary (2013-2016)
• 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Informaiton Theory, Publicity Chair
• International Symposium on Information Theory and Its Applications (ISITA), Publicity Co-Chair, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020
• IEEE Information Theory Society, Conference Committee, Member, 2016-2019
• Japan-Singapore Workshop on Coding and Information Theory, Co-Chair, 2018
• IEICE Research Society of Information Theory and its Applications, "Board of Govenors," Member, 2015-2016
• 2014 IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), Publicity Chair
• Workshop on Coding for Flash Memories (Japan) 2010, 2012, 2013

Technical Activities

• Guest Associate Editor for IEICE Transactions Special Section on Information Theory and Its Applications (2015, 2011)
• Associate editor for IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences (2010-2014)
• Technical program committee chair:
  • IEEE International Conference on Communications - Selected Areas in Communication, Data Storage 2014
  • International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications ICNC 2013, Data Storage Technology and Applications, Symposium Co-Chair
• Technical program committee member (or equivalent):
  • International Symposium on Information Theory and Its Applications (ISITA) 2010, 2014, 2020
  • International ITG Confernce on Systems, Communications and Coding (SCC) 2019
  • Non-Volatile Memories Workshop (NVMW) 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020
  • International Symposium on Turbo Codes & Iterative Information Processing (ISTC), 2016, 2018
  • IEEE International Conference on Communications ICC
    • Selected Areas in Communication – Cloud & Fog Computing, Networking, and Storage Track 2020
    • Selected Areas in Communication Symposium (Data Storage Track) 2013, 2018
    • Communication Theory Symposium: 2014, 2017
  • International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Wireless Networking Symposium, Wireless Networks 2017
  • IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2008, 2010, 2013, 2016
  • IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing, 2016
  • International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC) 2012
  • International Symposium on Communications & Information Technologies (ISCIT) 2011
  • IEEE Intermag, Technical Review Committee (2015 Recording System II Session, 2006)
• Reviewer for: IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, IEICE Transactions.
• Member of IEEE, IEICE.

Grants, Fellowships and Awards

• 2019-2022 Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B). 19H02137 "Lattice Codes for Gaussian Wireless Networks." 11,800,000 yen (direct amount).
• 2019 Toshiba Memory Research Encourangement Grant, "Machine-Learning Enhanced Signal Processing for High Reliability Data Storage."  
• 2016-2017 Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research). JP 15KK0005 "LatticeNET: Practical Lattice Codes for Cooperative Wireless Networks." 5,400,000 yen (direct amount)
• 2014-2016 Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B). 26289119, "LatticeNET: Practical Lattice Codes for Cooperative Wireless Networks." 12,400,000 yen (direct amount).
• 2012 IEICE Service Award. For service as an Editorial committee member of the English-language journal.
• 2011-2013 Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C). 23560439, "Signal Processing and Coding Methods for High-Density Flash Memory Systems." 4,000,000 yen (direct amount)
• 2007-2008 Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C). 19560371, "Decoding Methods for Non-binary LDPC Codes Using Information Theoretic Approaches" 1,500,000 yen (direct amount)
• 2004-2005 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship. A two-year fellowship supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, number 00004908, 2004.
• 2004 Sheldon Schultz Prize for Excellence in Graduate Student Research. Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California, San Diego.
• 2000 Jacobs Fellowship. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego.

Biography

Brian M. Kurkoski is a professor at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) in Nomi, Japan. Born in Portland, Oregon, USA, he received the B.S. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1993, and then worked at two California startups. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California San Diego in 2000 and 2004, respectively. He received a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2004 to 2006, while at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan, where he continued as associate professor from 2007 to 2012. He has been at JAIST since 2012. He was an associate editor for IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences from 2010 to 2014. He was chair of the Data Storage Technical Committee, a technical committee of the IEEE Communications Society for 2017-2018, and was secretary for 2013-2016. He has been chair of the IEEE Information Theory Society Online Committee since 2019. He is a general co-chair of the 2021 IEEE Information Theory Workshop to be held in Kanazawa, Japan.