Naoki Kodama received the B.S. degree in physics from The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1977, the M.S. degree in physics from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1979, and the Ph.D. degree in materials science from The University of Tokyo in 1994. He has been a Professor and the Director in Management of Technology with the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa, Japan, since October 1, 2009. He was a Distinguished Engineer and managed a hard disk drive (HDD) program design team in Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Inc. (Hitachi GST), San Jose, CA, and led the Read/Write (R/W) and Reliability Technology Strategy Project for automotive HDDs before joining the university. From January 1, 2003, to June 30, 2006, he led the R/W Group for developing high-end HDDs in the San Jose head office in Hitachi GST. Until December 2002, he led the R/W Group for developing HDDs with MR/GMR heads, thin-film disks, and PRML channel for high-end HDD products in the Storage Technology Division, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd., Fujisawa, Japan. He experienced the research and development of high-density magnetic recording technologies for HDDs with MR heads, thin-film disks, and coating disks and for magnetic bubble memory devices in the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd., after he joined Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd., in 1979. He published 38 papers and presented 56 papers in international or domestic conferences. He proposed over 140 patents and had over 25 U.S. patents on magnetic recording media, HDDs, and magnetic bubble memory devices. Dr. Kodama was the Chairperson of the Technical Committee of IDEMA Japan in 2007, 2008, and 2009.