Makoto Kobayashi
Facts
© The Nobel Foundation Photo: U. Montan
Makoto Kobayashi
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008
Born: 7 April 1944, Nagoya, Japan
Affiliation at the time of the award: High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan
Prize motivation: “for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature”
Prize share: 1/4
Work
Physicists long assumed that nature is characterized by symmetry. In a kind of mirrored world where right and left changed places and matter was exchanged for antimatter, natural laws would stand. After it was discovered that the decay of certain particles (kaons) was asymmetrical, a mathematics-based explanation for this was presented by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa in 1972. The explanation meant that there must be at least three families of quarks that form matter. This theory was later verified.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
