Aiming at a more rigorous understanding in electrical insulating materials research

Professors Inuishi, Ieda and Yahagi were pioneers of research in dielectrics in Japan. Their philosophy was that in order to understand a certain property of a material or to clarify the mechanism of a phenomenon, research must be done with scientific rigor and a scholarly approach. Here, the author wishes to illustrate their philosophy through a number of examples of his own research on both inorganic and organic materials and on topics ranging from vacuum discharge, through defect centers in inorganic glasses, to the water tree degradation phenomena in insulating polymers. Finally he will make some comments upon the way in which fundamental research can be useful in an engineering context.