Professor Yoichiro Nambu wins the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics

This year, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three Japanese physicists, Professor Yoichiro Nambu, Professor Makoto Kobayashi and Professor Toshihide Maskawa.

Among them, Professor Nambu started his career at our Department (1942: BA degree, 1942-1949: Research associate, 1952: degree of Doctor of Science) and has had a close association with us since then.

The concept of "spontaneous symmetry breaking", which Professor Nambu discovered, introduced a totally new method for giving mass to fundamental particles and played a defining role in constructing the "Standard Model" of elementary particles.
To date, many people have been awarded the Nobel Prize for their contribution to this model.
We are very happy to know that Professor Nambu, whose work is the basis of the "Standard Model", has finally been honored.
Professor Nambu's idea is quite universal in many branches of physics. For example, superconductivity and rotational phenomena in quantum systems can be clearly understood using his ideas.
The massless bosons which appear after the symmetry breaking are now referred to as "Nambu bosons" or "Nambu-Goldstone bosons".

We are indebted to Professor Nambu for his various contributions to our Department. He provided opportunities to many researchers from our Department to work in his Lab at the University of Chicago and shared his great ideas with them. He also visited our Department almost every year and shared with us his great inspiration through beautiful lectures and seminars. He also gave us valuable suggestions as a member of the independent review committee for the Department.
As an example, the goal of the 21st century COE program "Quantum Extreme Systems and Their Symmetries" (2003-2007) was conceived in order to promote a broad range of physics in a harmonious way, much like Professor Nambu's work.

Congratulations Nambu sensei!

Photographs (Guidance and Get-Together for International Students: Dec. 9, 2008)

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