In Loving Memory of - Morgan State University

12On behalf of faculty of civil engineering of Hokkaido University, I would like toexpress our sincere condolences to his family, his colleague, and his friends.Every year, we were looking forward to seeing him at TRB annual meeting todiscuss hot topics of transportation engineering and hear his opinions about ourstudies. He would always encourage us, particularly our young researchers, tostudy looking at the world and attend TRB meeting every year. They have learnedlots of things from him. Nobody has anticipated at all that he would not be here thisyear. From now on, our young fellows would transfer to the next generation whatthey had learned from him. As long as this would be continued from generation togeneration, Prof. Kikuchi would be alive for ever in our mind.May he rest in peace.菊 池 先 生Takashi Nakatsuji, ProfessorHokkaido University15 年 前 ぐらいのTRBの 年 次 大 会 が、 菊 池 先 生 とお 話 しするきっかけとなりました。その 後 、TRBの 年 次 大 会 や 北 大 での 講 義 にて、 先 生 のお 話 を 拝 聴 する 機 会 が 多 数 ありました。 研 究 にて 直 接 議 論 させていただく 機 会 はなかったのですが、 議 論 の 要 点を 見 逃 さず、ユーモアのある 表 現 で、 的 確 なアドバイスを 与 える 先 生 にすっかり 魅了 されてしまいました。いつか、 先 生 のような 雰 囲 気 を 持 てるよう、 少 しでも 近 づけるよう、 努 力 を 続 けたいと 思 います。最 後 に、 先 生 のご 冥 福 をこころよりお 祈 りいたします。萩 原 亨I had the pleasure of meeting Professor Shinya Kikuchi a few times at HokkaidoUniversity in Japan and at Conferences. Every mdeeting with Professor Kikuchi wasa valuable opportunity to learn from his speeches and to discuss about severalaspects in the transportation field. His knowledge and simplicity in explaining anddiscussing research development and results was enormously enriching for mystudies and posterior research career.While we will hugely miss Professor Kikuchi among us, I hope that we may be ableto continue applying the knowledge learnt from him.Respectfully,Toru Hagiwara, ProfessorHokkaido University, JapanKatia Andrade , Ph.D.Hokkaido University, JapanIt is a great pity that Prof. Shinya Kikuchi passed away. I really miss him. The relationbetween Prof. Kikuchi and myself started in 1997. At that time, Prof. Kikuchi kindlyinvited me as a visiting scholar of University of Delaware through Prof. Yasunori Iida,Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University. It was a great opportunity for me and my wife,since it was my first experience to live and work overseas.I remember clearly the days I spent at University of Delaware in one year fromNovember 1997 with very warm feeling because of very kind assistance of Prof. Kikuchiand Ms. Laura Kikuchi. During my stay in University of Delaware, I worked with Prof.Kikuchi, Mr. Mitsuru Tanaka and Dr. Yasushi Tanaka for conducting the researchproject to evaluate the feasibility of Automated Highway Systems. One of the relatedresearch topics was analyzing the impact of ACCS (Advanced Cruise Control System)vehicles upon traffic flow stability. In the study, the fuzzy inference was utilized fordescribing car-following behavior of both ACCS and non-ACCS (conventional) vehicles.Some cases of simple simulations could suggest that ACCS vehicles might contribute toenhancement in stability of traffic flow. Fortunately, the corresponding papers on ouroutcomes were published in ASCE journal and the proceedings of ITS symposium,Japan. These papers became very good memorials for me to represent how we workedtogether with Prof. Kikuchi.After I came back to Japan in 1998, fortunately we could maintain and enhance ourrelationship. Prof. Kikuchi kindly gave me valuable chances to be involved ininternational academic frameworks. And he continuously encouraged me and mystudents to join the international academic activities in order to have proper knowledgeand experience for working overseas. For example, several students of my laboratorywere allowed to join the summer school in Helsinki. I believe that such experiencesmight be treasures for them during their student time.I am sure that Prof. Kikuchi is a ‘real researcher and professor’. He always studiedsomething new and tried to find out his original idea to make a progress in his research.I believe that he loves to do the researches in the field of transportation engineering andplanning. I also learned from him a lot in terms of supervising our students. Especially,I realize that it is very important for the faculty to review the idea proposed by studentswithout any prejudice. He suggested to me that any idea, which seemed to be tiny andhave less value at first sight, frequently had great value for making progress in ourresearch. Now it becomes one of my basic disciplines to supervise my students.I had my last meeting with Prof. Kikuchi in Kyoto last May. He seemed to be almostOK even though he was suffering and just had an operation. When he left, he made thesame greeting in Japanese with gentle smile as usual. ‘Hope to see you again soon’.Unfortunately we are not allowed to see him again. But I never forget his smile whichmakes me feel comfortable.At the end my speech, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Kikuchi forwhat he has done for us. ‘Arigato-Gozaimashita’, Prof. Kikuchi. I wish that Prof.Kikuchi is now spending very peaceful time in heaven.Nobuhiro Uno, Ph.D.Kyoto University, Japan13