Takaaki Kajita

Takaaki Kajita

Takaaki Kajita, Nobel Laureate in physics in Stockholm December 2015
Native name 梶田 隆章
Born (1959-03-09) 9 March 1959
Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan
Institutions Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo
Education Saitama Prefectural Kawagoe High School
Alma mater Saitama University (B.S.)
University of Tokyo (M.S., Ph.D.)
Doctoral advisor Masatoshi Koshiba
Other academic advisors Yoji Totsuka
Notable awards Asahi Prize (1988)
Bruno Rossi Prize (1989)
Nishina Memorial Prize (1999)
Panofsky Prize (2002)
Japan Academy Prize (2012)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2015)
Fundamental Physics Prize (2016)
Spouse Michiko

Takaaki Kajita (梶田 隆章 Kajita Takaaki, born 9 March 1959) is a Japanese physicist, known for neutrino experiments at the Kamiokande and its successor, Super-Kamiokande. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald.

Early and personal life

Kajita was born in 1959 in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan.[1] His wife, Michiko, lives in Toyama.[2]

Career

Kajita studied at the Saitama University and graduated in 1981. He received his doctorate in 1986 at the University of Tokyo.[2] Since 1988 he has been at the Institute for Cosmic Radiation Research, University of Tokyo, where he became an assistant professor in 1992 and professor in 1999.[3]

He became director of the Center for Cosmic Neutrinos at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) in 1999. As of 2015, he is at the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo and Director of ICRR.[4]

In 1998, Kajita's team at the Super-Kamiokande found that when cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere, the resulting neutrinos switched between two flavours before they reached the detector under Mt. Kamioka.[2][5] This discovery helped prove the existence of neutrino oscillation and that neutrinos have mass. In 2015, Kajita's shared the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Canadian physicist Arthur McDonald, whose Sudbury Neutrino Observatory discovered similar results.[5] Kajita and McDonald's work solved the longstanding Solar neutrino problem, which was a major discrepancy between the predicted and measured Solar neutrino fluxes, and indicated that the Standard Model, which required neutrinos to be massless, had weaknesses.[5] In a news conference at the University of Tokyo, shortly after the Nobel announcement, Kajita said, "I want to thank the neutrinos, of course. And since neutrinos are created by cosmic rays, I want to thank them, too."[6]

One of the first people Kajita called after receiving the Nobel Prize was 2002 Nobel physics winner Masatoshi Koshiba, his former mentor and a fellow neutrino researcher.[2]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Takaaki Kajita - Facts". Nobel Foundation. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Japan’s Takaaki Kajita shares Nobel in physics". Japan Times. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "2015 Nobel Prize in Physics: Canadian Arthur B. McDonald shares win with Japan's Takaaki Kajita". CBC News. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "About ICRR". Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo.
  5. 1 2 3 Randerson, James and Ian Sample (6 October 2015). "Kajita and McDonald win Nobel physics prize for work on neutrinos". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Overbye, Dennis (6 October 2015). "Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald Share Nobel in Physics for Work on Neutrinos". New York Times. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "Julius Wess Award to Takaaki Kajita". Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe. 27 November 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015".. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 6 October 2015.

External links

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