Nobel Prize in Physics Rewards 3 Decades Old Discoveries

07 October 2008 @ 10:45 am EDT

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2008 was awarded to three theoretical scientists for discoveries that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter.

American Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half of the $1.4 million prize for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.

Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half of the prize for discovering another type of broken symmetry, one that predicted the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

The Royal Swedish Academy lauded the scientists, saying that they "presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter."

The prizes in chemistry, literature and the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced later this week, while the economics award will be presented on Monday.

Biographies:

Yoichiro Nambu, US citizen. Born 1921 in Tokyo, Japan. D.Sc. 1952 at University of Tokyo, Japan. Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, IL, USA.

http://physics.uchicago.edu/research/areas/particle_t.html#Nambu

Makoto Kobayashi, Japanese citizen. Born 1944 in Nagoya, Japan. Ph.D. 1972 at Nagoya University, Japan. Professor Emeritus at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan.

www.kek.jp/intra-e/press/2007/EPSprize2_e.html

Toshihide Maskawa, Japanese citizen. Born 1940. Ph.D. 1967 at Nagoya University, Japan. Professor Emeritus at Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University, Japan.

Nobel Prize in Physics Rewards 3 Decades Old Discoveries

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