Professor Isao Tanihata is a specially appointed professor at the Research Center of Nuclear Physics (RCNP) of Osaka University (Japan) and a professor at the School of Physics at Beihang University (China). He received his Doctor of Science degree from Osaka University in 1975.
After his doctoral program, he moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) as a fellow. At that time, the first high-energy heavy ion was accelerated at the Bevatron and Bevalac, and he joined an experimental group led by Shoji Nagamiya, Owen Chamberlain, and Emilio Segrè and worked on heavy-ion collisions to look for extreme states of nuclear matter.
Together with K. Sugimoto, his doctoral supervisor, he discovered the possibility of using radioactive nuclear beams, working at the University of California, Berkeley to develop the method. The first experiment that led to the discovery of neutron halos was started in 1983 under the collaboration between the LBL and the Institute of Nuclear Study, The University of Tokyo. The first several papers he published in 1985 and the following years opened a new era in nuclear physics.
After serving as an assistant professor and associate professor at The University of Tokyo, he moved to RIKEN as a chief scientist. His main research subject was nuclear physics using the Ring Cyclotron in RIKEN and the Heavy-Ion Synchrotron SIS-18 facility at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany. Observing a steady development of radioactive ion (RI) beam science, together with Masayasu Ishihara and Yasushige Yano he proposed the RI Beam Factory project (currently called RIBF), which is currently a leading facility in the field of nuclear physics.
After leaving RIKEN in 2004, he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, TRIUMF in Canada, and GANIL in France and was appointed to his current position at RCNP in 2012. He was also appointed as a Thousand Talent Program professor in 2010 and has served in another current position at Beihang University since 2016.
After an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, he organized a national project of for measurement of radioactivity in soil in the greater Fukushima region within 150 km from the plant, and the environmental radioactivity research continues as of 2023. He also develops the education system for environmental radiation for university students in all fields of science, including natural and social sciences.
He has been honored with various awards: The Millar Award in 1979 from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, the University of California; the Nishina Prize in 1989; was named an APS fellow in 1994; was named Professor honoris causa by Bucharest University in Romania in 1997; became a Thousand Talents Plan professor in 2010; and received the Humboldt Scientific Award in 2011. He is also a member of the Academy of Europe.
Dr. Hiroshi Toki is a distinguished professor at RCNP, Osaka University, where he retired in 2011 after a remarkable career spanning several decades. He served as the director of RCNP in 2001–2007, and his exceptional leadership skills and expertise made a significant impact on the center. Despite his retirement in 2011, he continues to contribute to the academic community as a specially appointed professor in the Co-creation Center, Graduate School of Engineering Science, and Health and Counseling Center at Osaka University.
His numerous outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear physics, as well as his expertise in various other fields, continue to inspire students and researchers worldwide. With over 400 peer-reviewed journal articles to his name, numerous edited books, conference proceedings, and several authored books in both English and Japanese, he has an impressive track record as an author, editor, and conference organizer. His areas of expertise includetheoretical nuclear physics and noise theory in electric circuits, and he has played a leading role in nuclear physics conferences since 1995, including co-chairing the XVI International Conference on Particles and Nuclei in Osaka in 2002.
Prof. Toki is a prominent researcher in nuclear physics with diverse interests spanning several fields. He has worked on nuclear deformation, structural changes in high spin states, pion physics in nuclei and deeply bound pionic atoms, and the role of chiral symmetry breaking in quark nuclear physics. In recent years, he has focused on understanding the role of the tensor interaction caused by pion exchange among nucleons in nuclear structure. His work sheds light on the fundamental nature of nuclear interactions, facilitating better understanding of the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions. In addition to nuclear physics, he has expanded his research interests to other fields including the noise theory of electric circuits, mutati
