Japan's Kajita Shares Nobel Prize In Physics With Canada's McDonald

TOKYO, JAPAN - OCT. 6: Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics along with Canada's Arthur McDonald on Tuesday for their discovery of neutrino oscillations demonstrating that neutrinos have mass, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.Kajita, 56, is a professor at the University of Tokyo and director of the university's Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, while McDonald, 72, is a professor emeritus at Queen's University in Canada. Kajita is a student of Masatoshi Koshiba, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002. Kajita is the second Japanese to win a Nobel Prize this year following Satoshi Omura, 80, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other scientists on Monday. "My mind has gone completely blank," Kajita told a press conference at the University of Tokyo, describing how surprised he was to hear the news. "I am very honored." At another point, Kajita spoke about the significance of his breakthrough work that has upended scientific thinking and provided a footstep to reveal the mystery of the history and fate of the cosmos. "Research on neutrino is not something that can become useful soon. And I would use these words to describe it: I'd say it is a field to expand the horizon of intellectuality of human beings." His win brought the total number of Japanese Nobel laureates to 24 including Shuji Nakamura. Only a year ago, Nakamura and two Japanese scientists were awarded the physics prize for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes. In 1998, Kajita reported the discovery of neutrino oscillations in which neutrinos, one of the elementary particles of matter, in the atmosphere switch between two identities on their way to the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory 1,000 meters underground in the central Japan prefecture of Gifu. McDonald made a similar discovery at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada.