Yoshihide Kozai

Yoshihide Kozai (; 1 April 1928 – 5 February 2018) was a Japanese astronomer specialising in celestial mechanics. He is best known for discovering, simultaneously with Michael Lidov, the Kozai mechanism, for which he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy in 1979. He was the first Japanese president of the International Astronomical Union from 1988 to 1991, and was director of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan from 1988 to 1994. He was professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

Biography Kozai was born on 1 April 1928, in Tokyo. He graduated from the University of Tokyo, where he obtained his Doctor of Science.

In 1988, Kozai became the first Japanese person to become the president of the International Astronomical Union.

In 1989, he received the Brouwer Award of the American Astronomical Society. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 2002.

He was the director of the Gunma Astronomical Observatory from 1997 to 2012, and its honorary director from 2012.

Legacy The asteroid 3040 Kozai is named in his honour.

Awards and honors

Asahi Prize (1963) Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy (1979) Brouwer Award (1989) Order of the Sacred Treasure (2002) Person of Cultural Merit (2009)