Masahiro Kitajima was born in Hokkaido, Japan. He received the B. Sc. degree from Hokkaido University (1971, Sapporo), the M.Sc. degree from Hokkaido University (1973, Sapporo), and the Ph. D. degree in experimental chemistry from Hokkaido University (1976, Sapporo). He was a senior researcher of National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, from 1976 to 2008. He has been Professor of Applied Physics at National Defense Academy since 2008. His current interests cover coherent phonon spectroscopy and surface dynamics.