Toshihide Maskawa

was a Japanese theoretical physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one quarter of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "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 Maskawa was born in Nagoya, Japan. After World War II ended, the Maskawa family operated as sugar wholesalers. A native of Aichi Prefecture, Toshihide Maskawa graduated from Nagoya University in 1962 and received a Ph.D. degree in particle physics from the same university in 1967. His doctoral advisor was the physicist Shoichi Sakata.

From early life Maskawa liked trivia, and studied mathematics, chemistry, linguistics and various books. In high school, he loved novels, especially detective and mystery stories and novels by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. is the fourth most cited high energy physics paper of all time as of 2010. The Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix, which defines the mixing parameters between quarks, was the result of this work. Kobayashi and Maskawa were jointly awarded half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work, with the other half going to Yoichiro Nambu. He was special professor and director general of the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe at Nagoya University, director of the Maskawa Institute for Science and Culture at Kyoto Sangyo University and professor emeritus at Kyoto University.

Nobel lecture On 8 December 2008, after Maskawa told the audience "Sorry, I cannot speak English", he delivered his Nobel lecture on “What Did CP Violation Tell Us?” in Japanese language, at Stockholm University. The audience followed the subtitles on the screen behind him.

Personal life Maskawa married Akiko Takahashi in 1967. The couple have two children, Kazuki and Tokifuji.

Death On 23 July 2021, on the same day as the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, Maskawa died of oral cancer at his home in Kyoto at the age of 81; his death was unrelated to the triple disaster and COVID-19 infection. He was cremated in October 2021 after a private funeral.

Professional record July 1967 – Research Associate of the Faculty of Science, Nagoya University May 1970 – Research Associate of the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University April 1976 – Associate Professor of the Institute for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo April 1980 – Professor of the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics (present Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics), Kyoto University November 1990 – Professor of the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University 1995 – Councilor, Kyoto University 1997 January – Professor of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University April – Director of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University 2003 April – Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University April – Professor of Kyoto Sangyo University (till May 2009) October 2004 – Director of the Research Institute, Kyoto Sangyo University October 2007 – Distinguished Invited University Professor of Nagoya University 2009 February – Trustee of Kyoto Sangyo University March – University Professor of Nagoya University June – Head of Maskawa Juku and Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University (till March 2019) 2010 April – Director of the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI) at Nagoya University December – Member of the Japan Academy 2018 April – Director Emeritus of KMI at Nagoya University April 2019 – Professor Emeritus of Kyoto Sangyo University

Recognition

1979 – Nishina Memorial Prize 1985 – Sakurai Prize 1985 – Japan Academy Prize 1995 – Chunichi Culture Award 1995 – Asahi Prize 2007 – High Energy and Particle Physics Prize by European Physical Society 2008 – Nobel Prize in Physics

2010 – Member of Japan Academy

Political proposition

In 2013, Maskawa and chemistry Nobel laureate Hideki Shirakawa issued a statement against the Japanese State Secrecy Law. " The following is Maskawa's main political proposition:

Support for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution Criticizing Japanese politician visits to the Yasukuni Shrine Support for selective couple surname system