Hideki Yukawa
| Hideki Yukawa | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | 湯川 秀樹 |
| Born |
23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | 8 September 1981 (aged 74) Kyoto, Japan |
| Nationality | Japan |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Institutions |
Osaka Imperial University Kyoto Imperial University Imperial University of Tokyo Institute for Advanced Study Columbia University |
| Alma mater | Kyoto Imperial University |
| Academic advisors | Kajuro Tamaki |
| Influences | Enrico Fermi |
| Notable awards |
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Hideki (né Ogawa) Yukawa ForMemRSFRSE (湯川 秀樹 Yukawa Hideki?, 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981), was a Japanese theoretical physicist and the first Japanese Nobel laureate.
Physics is a science that has made rapid progress in the twentieth century... I desire, as I did in the past, to be a traveler in a strange land and a colonist in a new country. (from the foreword to his autobiography)
He was born as Hideki Ogawa in Tokyo and grew up in Kyoto with two older brothers, two older sisters, and two younger brothers. He read the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean, and later Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu. His father, for a time, considered sending him to technical college rather than university since he was "not as outstanding a student as his older brothers". However, when his father broached the idea with his middle school principal, the principal praised his "high potential" in mathematics and offered to adopt Ogawa himself in order to keep him on a scholarly career. At that, his father relented.
Ogawa decided against becoming a mathematician when in high school; his teacher marked his exam answer as incorrect when Ogawa proved a theorem but in a different manner than the teacher expected (p. 141). He decided against a career in experimental physics in college when he demonstrated clumsiness in glassblowing, a requirement for experiments in spectroscopy (p. 163).
In 1929, after receiving his degree from Kyoto Imperial University, he stayed on as a lecturer for four years. After graduation, he was interested in theoretical physics, particularly in the theory of elementary particles. In 1932, he married Sumi Yukawa (?). In accordance with Japanese customs of the time, since he came from a family with many sons but his father-in-law Genyo had none, he was adopted by Genyo and changed his family name from Ogawa to Yukawa. The couple had two sons, Harumi and Takaaki. In 1933 he became an assistant professor at [Osaka University], at 26 years old.
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