Ukichiro Nakaya
| Ukichiro Nakaya | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | July 4, 1900 Kaga, Ishikawa |
| Died | April 11, 1962 (aged 61) |
| Fields | Physics |
| Alma mater |
University of Tokyo King's College London |
| Known for | Artificial snowflakes |
Ukichiro Nakaya (中谷 宇吉郎 Nakaya Ukichirō?, July 4, 1900 – April 11, 1962) was a Japanese physicist and science essayist known for his work in glaciology and low-temperature sciences. He is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes.
Nakaya was born near the Katayamazu hot springs in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, near the area depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu, an encyclopedic work published in 1837 that contains 183 sketches of natural snowflake crystals – the subject that became Nakaya's life work. Nakaya later wrote that his father wanted him to be a potter and sent him to live with a potter while he was in primary school. His father died after he finished primary school, but Nakaya's first scientific paper, written in 1924 for the inaugural issue of the proceedings of the Physics Department of Tokyo Imperial University, was devoted to Japanese Kutani porcelain.
Nakaya was inspired to study physics in high school by the nebular hypotheses of Kant and Laplace and by the works of Hajime Tanabe. He majored in experimental physics under Torahiko Terada at Tokyo Imperial University and graduated in 1925. Soon thereafter, he became Terada's research assistant at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). Nakaya studied electrostatic discharge as an assistant professor at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1928 and 1929, he continued his graduate studies at King's College London under Owen Willans Richardson, where he worked with long-wavelength X-rays. In 1930, he became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University, with which he would be associated for the rest of his life, and later that year he received his doctor of science degree from Kyoto Imperial University.
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