2008 Nobel Prize for Physics

Two Japanese scientists and a Tokyo-born US citizen are to share the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physics for their work in sub-atomic physics. The announcement was made in Stockholm this morning by Gunnar Oqvist, Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Yoichiro Nambu (right), now of the Univeristy of Chicago, was chosen for his discovery of the mechanism of 'spontaneous broken symmetry in sub-atomic physics'.
He is one of the leading scientists in the development of modern particle physics and made seminal contributions that introduced the concept of broken symmetry to the field.

He shares the prestigious annual prize of 10 million Swedish Kronor (€ 1,024,427) with Dr. Makoto Kobayashi (sitting on the left) and Dr. Toshihide Maskawa, who were recognised for work that predicted the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.
Dr. Kobayashi, of the Japanese High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation, and Dr. Maskawa of Tokyo University, laid the theoretical foundations for modern understanding of how the laws of physics differ for matter and anti-matter.