Toshiki Tajima is the Norman Rostoker Chair Professor at the University of California at Irvine, also Deputy Director of IZEST. He served as Chair of APS Subdivision of Plasma Astrophysics and ICUIL. Among other services, he used to be Director General of Kansai Photon Science Institute, the Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor at Univ. of Texas at Austin. He is the recipient of the Wilson Prize, Alfven Prize, Chandrasekhar Prize, Fermi Prize, and OSA’s Charles Hard Townes Medal.

Tajima suggested in 1979 the theory of the formation of a wakefield behind an ultra-short intense laser pulse and its subsequent acceleration of particles to high energies. This concept spurred the creation of the High Field Science. He was among the first in a team that demonstrated wakefield acceleration experimentally. Its applications include the compact generation of high-energy electrons, ions, and X-rays on ultrafast time scales and cancer therapy.