Makoto Kobayashi (小林 誠,Kobayashi Makoto; born April 7, 1944) is aJapanesephysicist known for his work onCP-violation who was awarded one-fourth of the 2008Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of thebroken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."[1]
Makoto Kobayashi was born inNagoya,Japan in 1944.[2][3] When he was two years old, Kobayashi's father Hisashi died. The Kobayashi family home was destroyed by theBombing of Nagoya, so they stayed at his mother's (surnamed Kaifu) family house. One of Makoto's cousins,Toshiki Kaifu, the 51stPrime Minister of Japan, was living in the same place.[4] His other cousin was anastronomer,Norio Kaifu.[5] Many years later, Toshiki Kaifu recalled Kobayashi: "when he was a child, he was a quiet and lovely boy, always reading some difficult books in my room. I think this is the beginning of his sudden change into a genius."[4]
After graduating from the School of Science ofNagoya University in 1967,[2][3] he obtained aDSc degree from the Graduate School of Science of Nagoya University in 1972.[6] During college years, he received guidance fromShoichi Sakata and others.
After completing his doctoral research atNagoya University in 1972, Kobayashi worked as a research associate on particle physics atKyoto University. Together, with his colleagueToshihide Maskawa, he worked on explainingCP-violation within theStandard Model of particle physics. Kobayashi and Maskawa's theory required that there were at least threegenerations of quarks, a prediction that was confirmed experimentally four years later by the discovery of thebottom quark.
Kobayashi and Maskawa's article, "CP Violation in the Renormalizable Theory of Weak Interaction",[7] published in 1973, is the fourth most cited high energy physics paper of all time as of 2010.[8] TheCabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix, which defines the mixing parameters betweenquarks was the result of this work. Kobayashi and Maskawa were jointly awarded half of the 2008Nobel Prize in Physics for this work, with the other half going toYoichiro Nambu.[1]
Kobayashi was born and educated inNagoya,Japan. He married Sachiko Enomoto in 1975; they had one son, Junichiro. After his first wife died, Kobayashi married Emiko Nakayama in 1990, they had a daughter, Yuka.[10]
