13 Facts About Yoji Totsuka

Yoji Totsuka was a Japanese physicist and Special University Professor, emeritus, University of Tokyo.

Yoji Totsuka was born March 6,1942, in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Yoji Totsuka held the position of research associate at the University of Tokyo from 1972 to 1979.

Yoji Totsuka was an associate professor of the University of Tokyo from 1979 to 1987, and was promoted to full professor at the University of Tokyo in 1987.

In 1981, Yoji Totsuka returned from Germany to Japan to work at the Kamioka Observatory, part of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research at the University of Tokyo.

Yoji Totsuka worked with Masatoshi Koshiba to establish the Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment.

In 1988, after Masatoshi Koshiba retired, Yoji Totsuka took his place as organizer and spokesperson of a core group of researchers to promote an expanded Cherenkov detector, the Super-Kamiokande experiment.

From 2002 to 2003, Yoji Totsuka was a professor at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization.

Yoji Totsuka was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and underwent surgery for it in 2000.

Nobel Prize winning physicist Masatoshi Koshiba was told that if Yoji Totsuka could extend his lifespan by eighteen months, he must receive the prize.

Towards the end of his life, Yoji Totsuka turned his attention to communicating with the Japanese public about his illness, science, and culture.

Yoji Totsuka maintained a blog, The Fourth Three-Months, where he candidly discussed the extent, progress, and treatment of his cancer.

Yoji Totsuka revealed an interest in gardening, particularly the flowers in the area where he spent much of his career, in Mozumi, the village where Super-K is located.