Dr. Toshihiko Kanayama started his research career in 1977 at the Electron Devices Division in the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), AIST Japan, after obtaining MS in Solid State Physics from University of Tokyo. In ETL, he worked on semiconductor fabrication process technologies using ion, electron and synchrotron radiation beams. In 1993, he moved to the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (JRCAT) to develop atomic scale material processing and characterization technology as a group leader.
He joined the Advanced Semiconductor Research Center, AIST in 2001 as an executive director, and worked as a sub-leader of the semiconductor MIRAI project. In the project, he managed development of material processing and characterization technology for scaled semiconductor devices.
He became the director of Nanodevice Innovation Research Center in 2008, and served as Vice-President of AIST since 2010 in charge of Information Technology and Electronics, Nanotechnology, Materials and Manufacturing, as Director General.
Since 2014, he was Senior Vice-President of AIST, and is now Fellow since 2017.