is an experimental particle physicist known for his observations of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos.

Career

Atsuto Suzuki and Piermaria Oddone 200704

Suzuki earned his doctorate from

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

in 1974, supervised by

Masatoshi Koshiba was a Japanese physicist and one of the founders of neutrino astronomy. His work with the neutrino detectors Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande was instrumental in detecting solar neutrinos, providing experimental evidence for the solar neutrino pr ...

. In 1982 he was appointed to the faculty of the Tōkyō University. In 1993, he took concurrent positions as professor at the High Energy Physics Laboratory of Tohoku University and professor at the Institute of Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) of Tōkyō University. Having taken part in the Kamiokande-II and

Super-Kamiokande Super-Kamiokande (abbreviation of Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experiment, also abbreviated to Super-K or SK; ja, スーパーカミオカンデ) is a neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture ...

neutrino detection experiments, Suzuki was appointed Director of the Research Center for Neutrino Science in 1998 and led the

KamLAND The Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) is an electron antineutrino detector at the Kamioka Observatory, an underground neutrino detection facility in Hida, Gifu, Japan. The device is situated in a drift mine shaft in the ...

neutrino detection experiments. From 2006 until 2015 he was Director General of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) Accelerator Laboratory.

Scientific achievements

Atsuto Suzuki and Piermaria Oddone 201010

The Kamiokande-II experiment detected a burst of neutrinos from

Supernova 1987A SN 1987A was a type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova. 1987A's light reached Earth on Febr ...

, the first observation of this kind, winning the research team the

Asahi Asahi (朝日, 旭, or あさひ) means "morning sun" in Japanese and may refer to: Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi (旭� ...

and

Bruno Rossi Bruno Benedetto Rossi (; ; 13 April 1905 – 21 November 1993) was an Italian experimental physicist. He made major contributions to particle physics and the study of cosmic rays. A 1927 graduate of the University of Bologna, he became in ...

prizes. Observations from the Super-Kamiokande experiment measured the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation (and hence neutrino mass) with unprecedented accuracy, thereby resolving the

solar neutrino problem The solar neutrino problem concerned a large discrepancy between the flux of solar neutrinos as predicted from the Sun's luminosity and as measured directly. The discrepancy was first observed in the mid-1960s and was resolved around 2002. The fl ...

. For this accomplishment, the project was awarded the 1998

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

. The KamLAND experiment was the first to detect

geoneutrinos A geoneutrino is a neutrino or antineutrino emitted in decay of radionuclide naturally occurring in the Earth. Neutrinos, the lightest of the known subatomic particles, lack measurable electromagnetic properties and interact only via the weak nuclea ...

generated by the decay of radionuclides deep inside Earth. These observations provided the first direct measurements of the abundance of geoneutrino-producing elements and their spatial distribution in Earth's interior, marking the start of a new field of neutrino geoscience.

Awards

Suzuki received the Japanese Medal of Honor with purple ribbon in 2005, the

Bruno Pontecorvo Prize The Bruno Pontecorvo Prize (russian: Премия имени Бруно Понтекорво) is an award for elementary particle physics, established in 1995 by the JINR in Dubna to commemorate Bruno Pontecorvo. The prize is mainly given for neut ...

in 2006, and the

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is one of the Breakthrough Prizes, awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Board. Initially named Fundamental Physics Prize, it was founded in July 2012 by Russia-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture capita ...

in 2016, shared with investigators from the

K2K The K2K experiment (KEK to Kamioka Observatory, Kamioka) was a List of neutrino experiments, neutrino experiment that ran from June 1999 to November 2004. It used muon neutrinos from a well-controlled and well-understood particle beam, beam to veri ...

T2K T2K ("Tōkai, Ibaraki, Tokai to Kamioka, Gifu, Kamioka") is a particle physics experiment studying the neutrino oscillations, oscillations of the accelerator neutrinos. The experiment is conducted in Japan by the international cooperation of about 5 ...

Daya Bay Daya Bay (), formerly known as Bias Bay, is a bay of the South China Sea on the south coast of Guangdong Province in China. It is bordered by Shenzhen's Dapeng Peninsula to the west and Huizhou to the north and east. History The bay was a hideou ...

, and

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

neutrino observation consortia. He was elected a foreign member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

in 2011. In 2021, he was elected as a

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

. In 2022, he was elected as a Members of the

Japan Academy The Japan Academy (Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is c ...

.日本学士院会員の選定について , 日本学士院
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Atsuto 1946 births Living people 20th-century Japanese physicists 21st-century Japanese physicists Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Members of the Japan Academy Persons of Cultural Merit Directors General of KEK