1. Yoshio Nishina was a Japanese physicist who was called "the founding father of modern physics research in Japan".
13 Facts About Yoshio Nishina
1. 2.
Yoshio Nishina led the efforts of Japan to develop an atomic bomb during World War II.
3.
Yoshio Nishina received a silver watch from the emperor as he graduated at the top of his class at Tokyo Imperial University as an electrical engineer in 1918.
4.
Yoshio Nishina became a staff member at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research where he began studying physics under Hantaro Nagaoka.
5.
Yoshio Nishina established Nishina Laboratory at RIKEN in 1931, and invited some Western scholars to Japan including Heisenberg, Dirac and Bohr to stimulate Japanese physicists.
6.
On 7 August 1945, Yoshio Nishina led a team of scientists sent by the Japanese high command to confirm whether or not Hiroshima was attacked with an atomic bomb.
7.
Yoshio Nishina's laboratory was severely damaged during World War II, and most of its equipment had to be discarded and rebuilt after the war.
8.
Yoshio Nishina later published an article on his reaction to the cyclotron's destruction.
9.
Fox stayed a few months in Japan, but Kelly stayed until 1950 and became friends with Yoshio Nishina, who spoke English.
10.
Two issues were most important for Yoshio Nishina: acquiring radio isotopes for research for a variety of nonmilitary purposes and attempting to preserve Riken as an institution for scientific research, which occupation forces were seeking to dismantle on the basis of anti-monopoly concerns.
11.
Yoshio Nishina's research was concerned with cosmic rays and particle accelerator development for which he constructed a few cyclotrons at RIKEN.
12.
Yoshio Nishina discovered the uranium-237 isotope and pioneered the studies of symmetric fission phenomena occurring upon fast neutron irradiation of uranium, and narrowly missed out on the discovery of the first transuranic element, neptunium.
13.
Yoshio Nishina was a principal investigator of RIKEN and mentored generations of physicists, including two Nobel Laureates: Hideki Yukawa and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga.