Kazuaki TAIRA is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he has taught since 1998. He received his Bachelor of Science (1969) degree from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and his Master of Science (1972) degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, where he served as an Assistant between 1972-1978. He holds the Doctor of Science (1976) degree from the University of Tokyo, and the Doctorat d'Etat (1978) degree from UniversitA(c) de Paris-Sud, France, where he received a French Government Scholarship in 1976-1978. Dr. Taira was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, U. S. A., in 1980-1981.

He was Associate Professor of the University of Tsukuba between 1981-1995, and Professor of Hiroshima University, Japan, between 1995-1998.His current research interests are in the study of three interrelated subjects in analysis: semigroups, elliptic boundary value problems and Markov processes.