Dr. Takatoshi Shindo, a distinguished Research Advisor Emeritus at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, passed away on August 27, 2022 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He was born in Tokyo on November 21, 1953. He was 68 years old.

Dr. Shindo received the B.S. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1976, 1978, and 1992, respectively.

He joined the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in 1978 where he worked up to 2015, terminating his career as Research Advisor Emeritus. In the period 1987-88 he was Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Florida. In 1988 he was appointed as Director of the Electrical Insulation Department, Komae Research Laboratory of CRIEPI, and in the period 2009-2015 he served as Associate Vice President of Electric Power Engineering Research Laboratory of CRIEPI. Since 2015 he served as a Research Advisor of CRIEPI, becoming Research Advisor Emeritus in 2018.

Dr Shindo has been actively engaged in the study of external insulation of power apparatus, particularly regarding lightning protection, and the physics of discharge in long air gaps. His scientific results have been highly appreciated by the international scientific community as demonstrated by the prestigious awards and recognitions he received. Dr. Shindo was an IEEE Fellow, class 2001 and was a recipient of the ICLP International Scientific Committee Award. His scientific and technical achievements will survive him, his scientific talent and his thoroughness were comparable only to his kindness, to his sensitivity and to his elegant understatement. The members of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Lightning Protection and the whole lightning scientific community will miss Dr. Takatoshi Shindo very much.