Yoichiro Nambu (南部 陽一郎, Nambu Yōichirō,
18 January 1921 – 5 July 2015) was a Japanese-American
physicist and professor at the University
of Chicago.
Known for his contributions to the field of
theoretical physics, he was awarded half of
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008 for the
discovery in 1960 of the mechanism of spontaneous
broken symmetry in subatomic physics, related
at first to the strong interaction's chiral
symmetry and later to the electroweak interaction
and Higgs mechanism.
The other half was split equally between Makoto
Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa "for the discovery
of the origin of the broken symmetry which
predicts the existence of at least three families
of quarks in nature."
== Early life and education ==
Nambu was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1921.
After graduating from the then Fukui Secondary
High School in Fukui City, he enrolled in
the Imperial University of Tokyo and studied
physics.
He received his Bachelor of Science in 1942
and Doctorate of Science in 1952.
In 1949 he was appointed to associate professor
at the Osaka City University and promoted
to professorship the next year at the age
of 29.In 1952, he was invited by the Institute
for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey,
United States, to study.
He moved to the University of Chicago in 1954
and was promoted to professor in 1958.
From 1974 to 1977 he was also Chairman of
the Department of Physics.
He became a United States citizen in 1970.
== Career in physics ==
Nambu proposed the "color charge" of quantum
chromodynamics,
having done early work on spontaneous symmetry
breaking in particle physics,
and having discovered that the dual resonance
model could be explained as a quantum mechanical
theory of strings.
He was accounted as one of the founders of
string theory.After more than fifty years
as a professor, he was Henry Pratt Judson
Distinguished Service Professor emeritus at
the University of Chicago's Department of
Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute.The Nambu-Goto
action in string theory is named after Nambu
and Tetsuo Goto.
Also, massless bosons arising in field theories
with spontaneous symmetry breaking are sometimes
referred to as Nambu–Goldstone bosons.
== Death ==
Nambu died on 5 July 2015 at the age of 94
in Osaka due to an acute myocardial infarction.
His funeral and memorial services were held
among close relatives.
== Recognition ==
Nambu won numerous honors and awards including
the Dannie Heineman Prize (1970), the J. Robert
Oppenheimer Memorial Prize (1977),
Japan's Order of Culture (1978), the U.S.'s
National Medal of Science (1982), the Max
Planck Medal (1985), the Dirac Prize (1986),
the Sakurai Prize (1994), the Wolf Prize in
Physics (1994/1995), and the Franklin Institute's
Benjamin Franklin Medal (2005).
He was awarded one-half of the 2008 Nobel
Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the
mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in
subatomic physics".
== See also ==
List of Japanese Nobel laureates
List of Nobel laureates affiliated with the
University of Tokyo
== References ==
== External links ==
Yoichiro Nambu, Department of Physics faculty
profile, University of Chicago
Profile, Scientific American Magazine
Yoichiro Nambu, Sc.D. Biographical Information
Nambu's most-cited scientific papers
Yoichiro Nambu's earliest book for the scientific
layman
Yoichiro Nambu's previously unpublished material,
including an original article on spontaneously
broken symmetry
Interview at the AIP Oral History site (July
16, 2004)
"A History of Nobel Physicists from Wartime
Japan" Article published in the December 1998
issue of Scientific American, co-authored
by Laurie Brown and Yoichiro Nambu
Tribute upon Prof. Nambu passing by former
student Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee
