Nagoya UniversityDepartment of Physics Graduate School of Science / School of Science

Research

History / Legacy

The origin of the present Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University was founded in April, 1939 when Nagoya Imperial University was inaugurated as Japan's ninth Imperial University. In May, 1940 the School started as the School of Science and Engineering and in April, 1942 it was split into two schools, namely, the School of Science and the School of Engineering. The School of Science consisted of four departments: the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The Department of Physics initially had three KOZAs. KOZA (講座) is a Japanese word literally meaning "lecture chair" and in its full scale, it consisted of a full professor (KYOJU, 教授), an assistant professor (JOKYOJU, 助教授), and two research associates (JOSHU, 助手). A KOZA constituted the minimal set of research groups under the strong leadership of the full professors. The number of KOZAs in the Department of Physics was increased to four in October, 1942, and to five in November, 1943. Since then the Department had had five KOZAs until 1958, when another KOZA was added.

The first full professors, after the five KOZAs were established in 1943, were Naomi MIYABE (geophysics), Kanetaka ARIYAMA (condensed matter physics theory), Ryozi UYEDA (condensed matter physics experiment), Shoichi SAKATA (elementary particle physics theory), and Yataro SEKIDO (cosmic ray physics). The Department of Physics with five KOZAs thus had about twenty faculty members, and including technical staffs, it had about 30 faculty and staff members. The number of undergraduate students was 20 per year, and the number of graduate students per year was about two to five. The Imperial University education consisted of three years for undergraduate students and several additional years for graduate students. Hence, the total number of physics students was about 60 to 70 altogether.

It was in the middle of World War II, and the Department of Physics had to suffer from various war-time disasters. For instance, Assistant Professor (JOKYOJU) Goro HAYAKAWA (optics) was killed in Tokyo on March 10, 1945, when Tokyo was systematically destroyed by the American air raids and bombing (carpet bombing). (Assistant Professor Goro HAYAKAWA's position was later taken by full Professor Yataro SEKIDO.) The City of Nagoya was not free from war disasters, either. On March 25, 1945, one of the students in the Physics Department died from a bomb, as one of thousands of citizen casualties. Seeing this, the Department of Physics immediately decided to evacuate into safer rural areas of Japan such as Komoro (experimental groups) and Fujimi (theoretical groups) in Shinshu Region (mostly in present Nagano Prefecture). The entire Physics Department of about 100 members moved to these safer areas. The Physics Department rented an elementary school, public library, Buddhist temples, and warehouses of local business, and turned them into classrooms, laboratory rooms, office rooms, etc. It also rented rooms for housing and boarding. The faculty, staff, and student members thus spent several months of "summer camp"-like endeavors together until the end of the War in August, 1945 (actually, this evacuation lasted from April to around October, 1945). Despite hunger (due to lack of food) and various inconveniences due to war-time shortages of everything, everyone was very enthusiastic about research, teaching, and learning. One emeritus professor (Fumio OOSAWA) recalled the time and told us that he "enjoyed" a book-reading class of Dirac's quantum mechanics textbook with students in the warehouse classroom. He said that many were suffering from hunger and malnutrition so that if a finger got a small cut during physics experiments, it took a long time to heal.

After the War, the Department of Physics came back to Nagoya only to find that many parts of the City of Nagoya were destroyed. Hence, they had to restart everything from scratch despite severe shortage of everything including food, clothes, laboratory equipment, etc. However, everyone knew that he/she can finally concentrate on physics research and so was very enthusiastic and optimistic about the new start. Led by Professor Shoichi SAKATA, the Department of Physics introduced the Charter of Physics Department on June 13, 1946, in which democracy was placed to be the guiding principle of Department affairs. Before this, physics research was conducted by KOZAs, which were hierarchically controlled by full professors. Instead of KOZAs, Research Groups were created with members with common research interests, where Research Groups could be easily created or reformed, following the members' wishes. The first Research Groups were: D Lab (electron diffraction), E Lab (elementary particle), G Lab (geophysics), H Lab (cosmic ray), K Lab (colloid), M Lab (ferromagnetism), and S Lab (super conductivity). Note that the number of Research Groups was seven and more than five, which was the number of full professors.

The Charter claims that as far as physics research is concerned, all the faculty members and students should be treated equal. For example, it was encouraged to address each other by "SAN." By calling a professor "Name SAN" instead of "Professor Name," students could feel no hierarchy in research. This is still encouraged in many Research Groups at present. This encouraged especially younger members of the Department to be responsible and actively participate in discussions of physics research. This idealism for academic democracy and freedom was then never even conceived elsewhere in Japanese universities not to mention the Japanese Ministry of Education. It was thus installed as an unofficial Charter without the approval of the Ministry of Education, and even today it remains to be an internal agreement of the Department. Soon after the Charter was announced, several physics departments in other Japanese universities introduced similar systems, but the number of such departments remained small, considering the radicalness and pure idealistic nature of the Charter.

In 2007 the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology finally realized that KOZA in which full professors controlled everything had serious drawbacks and it changed the titles of assistant professor (JOKYOJU) and research associate (JOSHU) to associate professor (JUNKYOJU, 准教授) and assistant professor (JOKYO, 助教), respectively, in order to encourage their academic independence from the KOZA systems. Hence, the Department of Physics of Nagoya University was indeed 60 years ahead of the time. We believe that this philosophy of academic democracy and freedom indeed played an important role as a cradle for many original and innovative research results and great physicists that came from the Department of Physics. One clear such example is the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics that was awarded to two of Professor SAKATA's students, Professors Makoto KOBAYASHI and Toshihide MASKAWA .

Through many decades since its creation, the Department of Physics has grown to have about 70 regular faculty members (full professors, associate professors, lecturers, and assistant professors), about 10 technical and administrative staffs, and about 600 undergraduate and graduate students. The present curriculum consists of four years of undergraduate education, two years of graduate education for Master of Science degrees, and three more years of graduate education for Ph.D. degrees. The Department currently has about 25 Research Groups that are actively engaged in all four major fields of physics, namely, astrophysics, elementary particle physics, condensed matter physics, and biophysics. The Department has very active Research Groups in the elementary particle physics and condensed matter physics fields, which are two major fields of physics found in most universities in Japan. The Department also has one of the largest and strongest Research Groups in astrophysics field and in biophysics field, while many other physics departments in Japanese universities have only a small number, if not zero, of researchers in these two emerging fields.

There are many famous and great physicists who passed through the Department of Physics as professors and students. In the following, we list such notable figures.

Sho ASAKURA
discovered the "Asakura-Oosawa Theory" on depletion forces [1]; started biophysics research in physics departments of Japanese universities, using biomolecules (actin from rabbit's muscle) and studied the phase transitions between G-actin and F-actin [2]; succeeded in in-vitro reconstruction of bacterial flagella, elucidating the mechanism of flagella formation [3].
  1. J. Chem. Phys. 22, 1255 (1954).
  2. J. Poly. Sci. 37, 323 (1959).
  3. J. Mol. Biol. 10, 42 (1964).
Satoru FUJIME
showed that bio-macromolecules are soft by the quasi-elastic light scattering method that uses laser light as a probe [1].
  1. (a) Biophysics 14, 9 (1974) (in Japanese). (b)Adv. Biophys. 3, 1 (1972).
Shuji FUKUI
developed a discharge (spark) chamber [1]. [philosophia No. 40, p.2]
  1. IL NUOVO CIMENTO 11, 113 (1959).
Yasuo FUKUI
developed a small high sensitivity radio telescope and created a citizen's club, Nagoya University Star Club, to raise private funds to set up a radio telescope "NANTEN" and its successor "NANTEN2" in Chile, South America. With the telescopes he led an extensive study of the molecular clouds and star formation in the Magellanic Clouds and discovered that the supersonic gas collision is the mechanism of the massive star/stellar cluster formation [1].
["Interview" in The Star Formation News Letter No.279, 16 March 2016]
[Les etoiles Vol. 34, p. 2]
  1. (a) Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 51, 745 (1999).
    (b) Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 69, L5 (2017).
Mitiko GO
discovered the correspondence relation between the modules of protein structures and the exons in DNA [1].
[philosophia No.1, p.4]
  1. Nature 291, 90 (1981).
Satio HAYAKAWA
started space astronomy research in Japan with X-ray and infrared observations, including the first rocket observation of cosmic X-rays [1]; was respected by many members of Nagoya University for his leadership and became the first (and still now the only) President of Nagoya University elected from the School of Science. [philosophia No.4, p.2]
  1. Cosmic Ray Physics. Nuclear and Astrophysics Aspects (Wiley-Interscience, 1969).
Sugie HIGASHI-FUJIME
succeeded in real-time optical microscope imaging of the process of muscle contraction that was reconstructed in vitro using isolated skeletal muscle proteins, actin and myosin [1].
  1. J. Cell Biol. 101, 2335 (1985).
Ken HOTTA
started biophysics research in physics departments of Japanese universities, using biomolecules (actin from rabbit's muscle) and studied the phase transitions between G-actin and F-actin [1].
  1. J. Poly. Sci. 37, 323 (1959).
Nobuhisa IMAI
obtained analytical solutions to the Poisson-Boltzmann equation with cylindrical geometry in the absence of added salt [1], which led them to propose the counterion condensation of polyelectrolytes [2]; started biophysics research in physics departments of Japanese universities, using biomolecules (actin from rabbit's muscle) and studied the phase transitions between G-actin and F-actin [3].
  1. (a) Busseiron Kenkyu 47, 49 (1952) (in Japanese).
    (b) J. Chem. Phys. 30, 1115 (1959).
  2. (a) J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 15, 896 (1960).
    (b) J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 16, 746 (1961).
  3. J. Poly. Sci. 37, 323 (1959).
Susumu KAMEFUCHI
discovered the criterion for renormalizability [1] and proposed the spectral representation of elementary particles, which is closely related to the Nakano-Kubo formula [2].
  1. Phys. Rev. 84, 154 (1951).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 6, 543 (1951).
Michiki KASAI
proposed a theoretical model of helical and linear aggregation of macromolecules and showed that the muscle protein F-actin is a helical aggregate of G-actin [1].
  1. J. Mol. Biol. 4, 10 (1962).
Tadao KASUYA
discovered the "Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) Interaction", which is a long-distance interaction between localized spins existing in different sites of metal [1]. [Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.21, p.5]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 16, 45 (1956).
Norio KATO
developed the X-ray diffraction topography, established a dynamical diffraction theory based on spherical waves, served as President of the International Union of Crystallography, and contributed to the establishment of the Japanese Association for Crystal Growth [1].
  1. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 18, 1785 (1963).
Makoto KOBAYASHI
discovered the "Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix", which predicted the existence of a third generation of quarks and explained the mechanism for CP violation [1]. [philosophia No.2, p.21] [philosophia No.15, p.19] [philosophia No.17, p.2] [2008 Nobel Prize in Physics]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 49, 652 (1973).
Ziro MAKI
discovered the "Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata Matrix", which predicted neutrino oscillations [1] and proposed a quartet model of elementary particles [2]. [philosophia No.30, p.4]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 28, 870 (1962).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 31, 331 (1964).
Toshihide MASKAWA
discovered the "Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix", which predicted the existence of a third generation of quarks and explained the mechanism for CP violation [1]. [philosophia No.2, p.21] [philosophia No.15, p.19] [philosophia No.16, p.2] [Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.5, p.6] [2008 Nobel Prize in Physics]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 49, 652 (1973).
Yousuke NAGAOKA
discovered the "Nagaoka ferromagnetism" which shows the maximum total spin due to a hole moving in the conduction electron system with the strong on-site repulsive interaction, and also developed a theory in the early study of the Kondo effect [1].
  1. Phys. Rev. B 147, 392 (1966).
Masami NAKAGAWA
discovered the "Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata Matrix", which predicted neutrino oscillations [1]. [philosophia No.30, p.4]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 28, 870 (1962).
Sadao NAKAJIMA
developed the theory of many body problem deriving the attractive force between electrons in superconductivity from phonon and Coulomb repulsive interactions [1].
[philosophia No.36, p.2]
Huzio NAKANO
discovered the "Nakano-Kubo Formula" for electric conductivity, which is one of the bases for non-equilibrium statistical mechanics [1].
[philosophia No.19, p.2] [Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.21, p.5]
Kiyoshi NIU
discovered a new elementary particle that includes the charm quark in cosmic ray data recorded in a nuclear emulsion plate [1]. [philosophia No.34, p.2]
[Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.18, p.4]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 46, 1644 (1971).
Kimio NIWA
developed a full-automatic nuclear emulsion read-out system and discovered the tau neutrino [1].
  1. Phys. Lett. B 691, 138 (2010).
Shuzo OGAWA
pointed out the role of symmetry in the Sakata Model, and discovered the U(3) symmetry with Y. Onuki et al. [1]. He also gave a theoretical interpretation that the event in the cosmic ray which was observed by Niu et al. had involved a new particle (known as the charm quark now) [2].
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 22, 715 (1959).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 47, 280 (1972).
Yoshio OHNUKI
has discovered the U(3) symmetry in the Sakata Model, a composite of model of elementary paricles, and from this work, has clarified the mathematical structures of the Sakata Model, which showed the usefulness of group theory (symmetry) in classification of elementary particles. This classification based on U(3) symmetry led to the quark model by Gell-Mann et al. He has also given a precise formulation method of fermion fields based on the method of coherent states, using path integrals. [Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.4, p.6] [philosophia No.37, p.2]
  1. (a) Prog. Theor. Phys. 22, 715 (1959). (b) Proc. Rochester Conf., pp. 843-850 (1960).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 60, 548 (1978).
Tatsuo OOI
started biophysics research in physics departments of Japanese universities, using biomolecules (actin from rabbit's muscle) and studied the phase transitions between G-actin and F-actin [1], invented a two-dimensional distance map of amino-acid pairs [2], and developed a method for representing solvation free energy of proteins in terms of solvent-accessible surface areas [3].
  1. J. Poly. Sci. 37, 323 (1959).
  2. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 32, 1331 (1972).
  3. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 3086 (1987).
Fumio OOSAWA
discovered the "Asakura-Oosawa Theory" on depletion forces [1]; obtained analytical solutions to the Poisson-Boltzmann equation with cylindrical geometry in the absence of added salt [2], which led them to propose the counterion condensation of polyelectrolytes [3]; started biophysics research in physics departments of Japanese universities, using biomolecules (actin from rabbit's muscle) and studied the phase transitions between G-actin and F-actin [4]; proposed a theoretical model of helical and linear aggregation of macromolecules and showed that the muscle protein F-actin is a helical aggregate of G-actin [5]; sent out his students to many universities nationwide as professors to start biophysics groups there, and played a major role in the inauguration of the Biophysical Society of Japan.
[philosophia No.7, p.14]
[philosophia No.20, p.19]
[philosophia No.24, p.18]
[philosophia No.31, p.2]
[Alumni Bulletin of School of Science, Nagoya University, No.12, p.6]
[2009 Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science (Lifetime Achievement)]
  1. J. Chem. Phys. 22, 1255 (1954).
  2. (a) Busseiron Kenkyu 47, 49 (1952) (in Japanese).
    (b) J. Chem. Phys. 30, 1115 ( 1959).
  3. (a) J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 15, 896 (1960).
    (b) J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 16, 746 (1961).
  4. J. Poly. Sci. 37, 323 (1959).
  5. J. Mol. Biol. 4, 10 (1962).
Shoichi SAKATA
proposed the "Two-Meson Theory" [1], a conclusive clue to establishing Yukawa's Meson Theory; proposed the "C-Meson Theory" [2], a forerunner of the renormalization theory; discovered the criterion for renormalizability [3]; proposed the "Sakata Model" [4], a forerunner of the quark model; discovered the "Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata Matrix" [5], which predicted neutrino oscillations, and more, thereby leading Japan's theoretical elementary particle physics research together with two other key outstanding figures in the field, namely, Hideki YUKAWA and Sin-itiro TOMONAGA. [philosophia No.2, p.2] [philosophia No.30, p.4]
  1. Prog. Theor. Phys. 1, 143 (1946).
  2. (a) Prog. Theor. Phys. 2, 30 (1947).
    (b) Prog. Theor. Phys. 5, 682 (1950).
  3. Phys. Rev. 84, 154 (1951).
  4. Prog. Theor. Phys. 16, 686 (1956).
  5. Prog. Theor. Phys. 28, 870 (1962).
Anthony Ichiro SANDA
proposed a renormalizable gauge fixing method in broken gauge symmetric theory and has developed the theory of CP violations in B meson decays that will prove the Kobayashi-Maskawa Theory, and has given a strong motivation for the experiments in Belle at KEK, Japan and BaBar at SLAC, USA, as well as fixing the necessary parameters of the accelerators to perform the experiments [1]. [philosophia No.30, p.4]
  1. Nucl. Phys. B 193, 85 (1981).
Shuji SATO
developed infrastructures of Japanese infrared astronomy, Subaru in Hawaii, USA [1], IRSF (InfraRed Survey Facility) in Sutherland, South Africa [2], and moderate-size instruments in the East Asia. Combination of the instrument [1] and the moderate-size telescope, KANATA, has provided unique and crucial data of time-variation [3].
  1. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 117, 870 (2005).
  2. Proc. SPIE 4841, 459 (2003).
  3. Nature 463, 919 (2010).
Yataro SEKIDO
studied anisotropy and origin of cosmic rays by muon telescopes and founded cosmic ray researches in Japan [1]. [philosophia No.28, p.2]
  1. Early History of Cosmic Ray Studies: Personal Reminiscences with Old Photographs (Springer, 1985).
Takehiko TAKABAYASHI
was one of Japan's pioneers in the field of history of physics and science; was also a theoretical physicist, a poet, and a critic [1].
  1. "Thoughts of a physicist: academism, poems, and critical essays"
    (Nihon Hyoronsha, 2000) (in Japanese).
Yasushi TAKAHASHI
proposed the quantum field theory at finite temperatures [1] and discovered the "Ward-Takahashi identity" [2].
  1. Collect. Phen. 2, 55 (1975).
  2. IL NUOVO CIMENTO 6, 371 (1957).
Mituo TAKETANI
was one of Japan's pioneers in the field of philosophy of science and proposed the Theory of Three Stages in Scientific Research, which stated that scientific research advances in three stages, namely, the phenomenological stage, substantialistic stage, and essentialistic stage [1].
  1. (a) Kagaku 12, 307 (1942) (in Japanese).
    (b) Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl. 50, 53 (1971).
Yasuo TANAKA
led Japanese X-ray astronomy research to the first class in the world with many X-ray missions [1]. [philosophia No.24, p.2]
  1. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 34, 607 (1996).
Akira TOMIMATSU
discovered the "Tomimatsu-Sato Solution", which is one of the exact solutions to the Einstein Equation in the General Theory of Relativity [1].
  1. Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 1344 (1972).
Hiroomi UMEZAWA
discovered the criterion for renormalizability [1], proposed the spectral representation of elementary particles, which is also closely related to the Nakano-Kubo formula [2], and proposed the quantum field theory at finite temperatures [3].
  1. Phys. Rev. 84, 154 (1951).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 6, 543 (1951).
  3. Collect. Phen. 2, 55 (1975).
Ryozi UYEDA
was a pioneer in the world in the development of a reflection high-energy electron diffraction device featuring a vacuum evaporator and was a pioneer in Japan's nanoscience research with his works on superfine particles [1]. [philosophia No.6, p.2]
  1. Prog. Materials Sci. 35, 1 (1991).
Akio YOSHIMORI
discovered the screw-type structure in the rutile type crystal due to the competition of anti-ferromagnetic interaction between spins on the body centered cubic lattice, and explained the spin structure observed in the experiment of MnO2[1].
  1. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 14, 807 (1959).
Kei YOSIDA
discovered the "Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) Interaction", which is a long-distance interaction between localized spins existing in different sites of metal [1] and also showed that the ground state in Kondo Effects is a spin singlet [2].
  1. Phys. Rev. 106, 893 (1957).
  2. Prog. Theor. Phys. 36, 875 (1966).