Satoshi Kawata (河田 聡, Kawata Satoshi, born 1 October 1951) is a scientist based in Japan who is active in nanotechnology, photonics, plasmonics, and other areas of applied physics.
Since 2002, Kawata is jointly at RIKEN as a Chief Scientist of the Nanophotonics Laboratory.
Kawata is known for his work in nanophotonics (study of the interaction between photons and nanostructures).
He has contributed to the community via a number of inventions, publications, and conference organizations in fields including near-infrared spectroscopy, laser-scanning microscopy, near-field optics, plasmonics, biophotonics, laser nanofabrication[1] and signal recovery.
Kawata has served as the President of the Spectroscopical Society of Japan from 2004 to 2007, President of the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) from 2014-2015, an Editor for Optics Communications from 2000 till present, a Program Officer of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a joint professor at the Department of Physics at Gakushuin University.