Tsutomu Shimomura — 318 Ski Way

Captured: 2026-07-27 (web research)
County records: Owner of 318 Ski Way (APN 130-390-07) since 07/1998 ($500k); mailing PO Box 3553, Incline Village
Confidence: CONFIRMED (very high) — an MBL family obituary (~2022) states Tsutomu Shimomura “and his wife… of Incline Village, NV, and Zürich, Switzerland”; his company Neofocal registered in Nevada 2011; rare name + 1998 purchase timing fits his post-SDSC period. Only the parcel-level link rests on the county record alone.

One-liner: Computational physicist and legendary computer-security researcher (ex-SDSC/UCSD, NSA consultant) who led the 1995 tracking of Kevin Mitnick, co-authored Takedown, and later founded semiconductor startup Neofocal Systems. Son of Osamu Shimomura (2008 Chemistry Nobel, GFP).

Career highlights

• Caltech under Feynman; staff physicist at Los Alamos (computational physics)
• SDSC/UCSD research scientist & Senior Fellow (1989–2000s); NSA security consultant
• 1992: testified to Rep. Markey’s committee on cellular privacy after reverse-engineering the Oki 900 into a scanner — live-intercepted cell calls in the hearing room under congressional immunity
• 1995: after the Christmas-1994 IP-spoofing/TCP-hijack attack on his systems (now textbook material), led the FBI trace that located Kevin Mitnick in Raleigh — the most famous incident-response story in infosec history
• Co-wrote Takedown (1996) with John Markoff; cameo in the 2000 film adaptation
• Founder/CEO/CTO, Neofocal Systems — fabless semiconductor company, “smart LED” chips carrying power + data on a single conductor; ~$12M raised ($9M round 2015); core patents in his name (e.g., US8344659). Stepped back 2016; company appears dormant (site live but minimal, © 2025)

Current

Deliberately low public profile since ~2016 — no talks, interviews, or press found 2020–2026; didn’t surface publicly even around Mitnick’s death (2023). Splits time between Incline Village and Zürich per the obituary.

Networking hooks

• Infosec history first-hand; packet-level forensics, RF/cellular security — massive overlap with Shapor’s infra/security world
• HPC/supercomputing (SDSC) ↔ ex-Google large-scale systems
• Founder-to-founder: deep-tech hardware startup through Series A as CEO/CTO
• Physics/first-principles conversation culture (Feynman student, Los Alamos)

⚠️ Approach note

Famously private, publicity-averse for a decade. Be the low-key technical neighbor, NOT “are you the guy from Takedown?” Let any recognition come from him. PO Box mailing + Zürich split suggests intermittent presence — don’t be surprised if 318 is often dark.

Sources

Wikipedia (career) · MBL obituary for Akemi Shimomura ~2022 (Incline Village residence) · GeekWire 2015 (Neofocal $9M) · OpenCorporates (Neofocal NV registration 2011) · Google Patents US8344659 · SDSC 1996 press release · takedown.com bio · Crunchbase