It is with deep sadness that we share the news of Prof. Makoto Nagao’s passing on May 23, 2021. A recipient of the ACL Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), Prof. Nagao was one of the pioneers of computational linguistics. He made significant contributions to several major research topics, including machine translation, corpus-based linguistics, electronic dictionaries, and digital libraries. He also endeavored the establishment of the International Association for Machine Translation, and became the organization's first president. Prof. Nagao continued to mentor numerous computational linguists after he initiated this research field in Japan.
Prof. Nagao’s research accomplishments and leadership were widely recognized. He was elected as the president of Kyoto University, a world-ranking research university. After retiring from the university, he was appointed to the director of National Diet Library. From these positions he engaged in not only academic research, but also worked with government agencies to influence Japanese policy in science, technology, and education.
His death is a great loss for computational linguistics, and for all those who were fortunate to know him and work with him.
Memories & Condolences can be found at https://nagao-memorial.kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/
Sincerely,
Committee for Memorial of Prof. Makoto Nagao