Norio Kaifu Explained

Norio Kaifu
Native Name:海部宣男
Birth Date:21 September 1943
Nationality:Japanese
Known For:President of International Astronomical Union from 2012–2015
Fields:Astronomy
Workplaces:National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Awards:Nishina Memorial Prize, 1987Japan Academy Prize, 1997Mainichi Book-Review Award, 2011
Alma Mater:University of Tokyo[1]

was a Japanese astronomer. He was best known as the president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) from 2012 to 2015.[2] He directed the Subaru telescope project, which housed the largest monolithic primary mirror in the world from its commission until 2005. Kaifu researched in radio astronomy, extragalactic astronomy, cosmic magnetic fields, non-stable stars, and infrared astronomy.[3] The minor planet 6412 Kaifu is named in his honor.[4]

Kaifu died of pancreatic cancer on 13 April 2019, at the age of 75.[5] [6]

Career

Kaifu graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1972 with a PhD in radio astronomy.[7] In the early 1980s, he organized bilateral collaborations with British astronomers, including the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, which improved relations with international astronomers. He also began working with astronomers in China, South Korea, and Taiwan, and formed the East Asian Core Observatories Association, which built the East Asian Observatory in 2014.[8] He became the chairman of the Radio Astronomy Division of the National Astronomical Observatory of Mitaka from 1988 to 1990, and associate director from 1992 to 1996.[9] In 1990, he was invited to join the Japanese Large Telescope Project, and became the founding director of the Subaru telescope.[10] [11] The telescope still remains as one of the largest telescopes in the world.[12] From 2000 to 2006, Kaifu was the director of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and led the construction of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, which became Japan's first large inter-university research facility in astronomy.[13] He then served in the Science Council of Japan as president of the Natural Science & Engineering Division from 2005 to 2011. He acted as the single point of contact for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in Japan. Kaifu taught at the Open University of Japan from 2007 to 2012; from 2012 to 2015, he was elected president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).[14] In his lifetime, he published over 150 papers and 30 books, and was a regular reviewer of the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

Scientific achievements

Kaifu became widely known for his research into radio spectroscopy. While working on the 6-meter millimeter wave telescope at the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, he developed radio spectrometers, which began to detect several molecules in the atmosphere after the telescope's completion in 1982.[15] He helped develop the acousto-optical spectrometer used in the Nobeyama 45 meter radio telescope.[4] This spectrometer had more than ten times the bandwidth and channels of other spectrometers at the time.[16] He and his team carried out surveys of spectral lines and discovered more than a dozen molecules, most of which were organic.[17] His work also helped develop the first clear evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Kaifu led research on star formation and laid the foundations for fields such as the direct observation of exoplanets and the evolution of protoplanetary disks.

Personal life

Kaifu is a cousin to Nobel laureate physicist Makoto Kobayashi[18] and former Japanese prime minister Toshiki Kaifu.[19] [20]

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: The International Astronomical Union: Uniting the Community for 100 Years. Baneke. David. Madsen. Claus. 2019. Springer. 9783319969657.
  2. Web site: Dr. Kaifu, the Former Director General of NAOJ, Takes the Position as the New IAU President. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. https://web.archive.org/web/20190411012408/http://www.nao.ac.jp/en/news/topics/2012/20120904-iau-president-kaifu.html. April 11, 2019. 2019-04-11. live.
  3. Web site: Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize Steering Committee. Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize. https://web.archive.org/web/20190412231425/http://vaprize.sci.am/committee/committee.php. 2019-04-12. 2019-04-12. live.
  4. Book: Schmadel, Lutz D.. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. 2012-06-10. Springer Science & Business Media. 9783642297182. 508. en. (6412) Kaifu...Named in honor of Norio Kaifu (1943–), recently appointed the first director of the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, following his direction of the construction of that telescope during the past six years. He also played an important role in the construction of the 45-m millimeter-wave radio telescope at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, in particular, by his development of the acousto-optical spectrometer, a powerful instrument for very high resolution able to identify many interstellar molcular lines. Kaifu served as chairman of the Radio Astronomy Division of the National Astronomical Observatory at Mitaka during 1988–1990 and as associate director during 1992–1996..
  5. News: Dr. Norio Kaifu, Former Director General of NAOJ, Passes Away. 16 April 2019. 16 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190427214247/https://www.nao.ac.jp/en/notice/20190416-kaifu.html. April 27, 2019. live. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
  6. Web site: Announcements - Obituary: Dr. Norio Kaifu, Founding Director of Subaru Telescope - Subaru Telescope. Yoshida. Michitoshi. April 15, 2019. Subaru Telescope. https://web.archive.org/web/20190418232250/https://subarutelescope.org/Announce/2019/04/15/index.html. April 18, 2019. live. 2019-04-18.
  7. Web site: Norio Kaifu (1943-2019). April 17, 2019. International Astronomical Union. https://web.archive.org/web/20190515012913/https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann19023/. May 15, 2019. May 14, 2019. live.
  8. Web site: Norio Kaifu. Hayashi. Masashiko. May 15, 2019. Nature Astronomy. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190914231816/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0802-3. September 14, 2019. September 14, 2019.
  9. Ishiguro. Masato. Orchiston. Wayne. Akabane. Kenji. Kaifu. Norio. Hayashi. Masa. Nakamura. Tsuko. Stewart. Ronald. Yokoo. Hiromitsu. 2012. Highlighting the History of Japanese Radio Astronomy: 1: An Introduction. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 15. 3. 213. 10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2012.03.06 . 2012JAHH...15..213I. 232845178 .
  10. Yutani. Masami. Yoshida. Shigeomi. Yoshida. Michitoshi. Yasuda. Naoki. Yamashita. Yasumasa. Yagi. Masafumi. Watanabe. Masaru. Watanabe. Junichi. Waseda. Koichi. 2000-02-01. The First Light of the Subaru Telescope: A New Infrared Image of the Orion Nebula. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 52. 1. 1–8. 2000PASJ...52....1K. 10.1093/pasj/52.1.1. 0004-6264. free.
  11. Web site: Japan's World-Class Astronomical Research  - Norio Kaifu. April 6, 2004. JAXA. https://web.archive.org/web/20190411035812/http://global.jaxa.jp/article/interview/vol7/index_e.html. April 11, 2019. 2019-04-11. live.
  12. Web site: Subaru Telescope. NAOJ. en. 2019-09-15.
  13. Web site: 2014 Kavli Prize Astrophysics Symposium. 2014-09-11. Kavli Prize. https://web.archive.org/web/20190412231435/http://kavliprize.org/events-and-features/2014-kavli-prize-astrophysics-symposium. April 12, 2019. 2019-04-12. live.
  14. Web site: Norio Kaifu. International Astronomical Union. https://web.archive.org/web/20190412044915/https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/3997/. April 12, 2019. 2019-04-10. live.
  15. Kaifu. N.. Kojima. T.. Tagaki. K.. 1 June 1975. Excitation of interstellar methylamine. The Astrophysical Journal. 198. 4. 1975ApJ...198L..85K. 10.1086/181818.
  16. Fujimoto. M.. Sofue. Y.. Jugaku. J.. 1977. A Computational and Observational Study of Peculiar Galaxies in the Coma Cluster. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 29. 1. 1977PASJ...29....1F.
  17. Kaifu. Norio. Ohishi. Masatoshi. Kawaguchi. Kentarou. Saito. Shuji. Yamamoto. Satoshi. Miyaji. Takeshi. Miyazawa. Keisuke. Ishikawa. Shin-Ichi. Noumaru. Chiaki. 2004. A 8.8–50 GHZ Complete Spectral Line Survey toward TMC-1 I. Survey Data. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 56. 69–173. 2004PASJ...56...69K. 10.1093/pasj/56.1.69. Harasawa. Sumiko. Okuda. Michiko. Suzuki. Hiroko. free. 10098/1600. free.
  18. Book: Nobel Lectures In Physics (2006-2010). 2 June 2014. World Scientific. 9789814612708. Lars. Brink. Series on Machine Consciousness. 3. 199. Makoto Kobayashi. 17 April 2019. https://books.google.com/books?id=yRS3CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199. https://web.archive.org/web/20190510213624/https://books.google.com/books?id=yRS3CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199. May 10, 2019. live. Google Books.
  19. Book: Kodaira, Kei'ichi. Makaliʻi in Hawaiʻi. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. 2016. 978-4-908895-01-2. Nariai. Kyoji. In August when the Voyager II of NASA was approaching the Neptune, Prime Minister Kaifu came into power. Mr. Toshiki Kaifu is a relative of Professor Norio Kaifu of the Radio Astronomy Division of the National Astronomical Observatory, and had worked as the Minister of Education. He knew big projects in the field of astronomy, so he had a tough side when debating.. April 17, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190417003346/http://prc.nao.ac.jp/publication/naojbook/maka-lii/index.html. April 17, 2019. live.
  20. Web site: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008. Kobayashi. Makoto. 2008. NobelPrize.org. en-US. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190326072212/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2008/kobayashi/biographical/. March 26, 2019. 2019-04-23.

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