Norio Kaifu

Norio Kaifu (海部 宣男, Kaifu Norio, 21 September 1943 – 13 April 2019) 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 honor of him.[4]

Norio Kaifu
海部宣男
Born(1943-09-21)21 September 1943
Died13 April 2019(2019-04-13) (aged 75)
NationalityJapanese
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo[1]
Known forPresident of International Astronomical Union from 2012–2015
AwardsNishina Memorial Prize, 1987

Japan Academy Prize, 1997

Mainichi Book-Review Award, 2011
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsNational Astronomical Observatory of Japan

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 organised 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 eventually created 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.[7] Kaifu taught at the Open University of Japan from 2007 to 2012,[9] and from 2012 to 2015, 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.[8]

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, and after the telescope's completion in 1982, began to detect several molecules in the atmosphere.[8][15] He also 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.[8] 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.[5]

Personal life

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

Awards

References
  1. Baneke, David; Madsen, Claus (2019). The International Astronomical Union: Uniting the Community for 100 Years. Springer. ISBN 9783319969657.
  2. "Dr. Kaifu, the Former Director General of NAOJ, Takes the Position as the New IAU President". National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Archived from the original on April 11, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  3. "Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize Steering Committee". Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize. Archived from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  4. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2012-06-10). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 508. ISBN 9783642297182. (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. "Dr. Norio Kaifu, Former Director General of NAOJ, Passes Away". National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. 16 April 2019. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  6. Yoshida, Michitoshi (April 15, 2019). "Announcements - Obituary: Dr. Norio Kaifu, Founding Director of Subaru Telescope - Subaru Telescope". Subaru Telescope. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
  7. "Norio Kaifu (1943-2019)". International Astronomical Union. April 17, 2019. Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  8. Hayashi, Masashiko (May 15, 2019). "Norio Kaifu". Nature Astronomy. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved 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. Bibcode:2012JAHH...15..213I.
  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. Bibcode:2000PASJ...52....1K. doi:10.1093/pasj/52.1.1. ISSN 0004-6264.
  11. "Japan's World-Class Astronomical Research – Norio Kaifu". JAXA. April 6, 2004. Archived from the original on April 11, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  12. "Subaru Telescope". NAOJ. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
  13. "2014 Kavli Prize Astrophysics Symposium". Kavli Prize. 2014-09-11. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  14. "Norio Kaifu". International Astronomical Union. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  15. Kaifu, N.; Kojima, T.; Tagaki, K. (1 June 1975). "Excitation of interstellar methylamine". The Astrophysical Journal. 198: 4. Bibcode:1975ApJ...198L..85K. doi: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. Bibcode:1977PASJ...29....1F.
  17. Kaifu, Norio; Ohishi, Masatoshi; Kawaguchi, Kentarou; Saito, Shuji; Yamamoto, Satoshi; Miyaji, Takeshi; Miyazawa, Keisuke; Ishikawa, Shin-Ichi; Noumaru, Chiaki; Harasawa, Sumiko; Okuda, Michiko; Suzuki, Hiroko (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. Bibcode:2004PASJ...56...69K. doi:10.1093/pasj/56.1.69.
  18. Lars, Brink, ed. (2 June 2014). "Makoto Kobayashi". Nobel Lectures In Physics (2006-2010). Series on Machine Consciousness. 3. World Scientific. p. 199. ISBN 9789814612708. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2019 – via Google Books.
  19. Kodaira, Kei'ichi (2016). Nariai, Kyoji (ed.). Makaliʻi in Hawaiʻi. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. ISBN 978-4-908895-01-2. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019. 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.
  20. Kobayashi, Makoto (2008). "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
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