转载 （Credit to Dr. Da Hsuan at
fengd@sevp.ncku.edu.tw)
More After Thoughts on Japanese Winning Nobel Prizes in 2008
In this new century (21st century,) Japanese (not necessarily Japan
because two are US citizens) have already won EIGHT Nobel prizes. Of
course there may be more this year since economics, literature and peace
have not been announced yet.
Since 2000, Japanese have so far won the following Nobel prizes
1. Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in
Woods Hole, MA, USA (Chemistry 2008) (US Citizen) Ph.D. from
the University of Nagoya.
2. Yoichiro Nambu of Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago
Chicago, IL (US Citizen) D.Sc from the University of Tokyo.
3. Makoto Kobayashi of High Energy Accelerator Research
Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Japan. Ph.D. from Nagoya
University.
4. Toshihide Maskawa of Kyoto Sangyo University; Yukawa Institute
for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Ph.D. from Nagoya University.
5. Masatoshi Koshiba of the University of Tokyo (Physics 2002)
Undergraduate from the University of Tokyo and Ph.D. from the
University of Rochester.
6. Koichi Tanaka of Shimadzu Corp. (Chemistry 2002) Undergraduate
from Tohoku University and the ONLY known NON-Doctorate
Nobel laureate!
7. Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University (Chemistry 2001) Ph.D. from
the University of Kyoto
8. Hideki Shirakawa of Tsukuba University (Chemistry 2000) Ph.D.
from Tokyo Institute of Technology
Few nations in the world can claim to have such accolades. So how did
that happen for Japanese is surely something other nations, especially
those in Asia Pacific, who would like understand.
Let me offer some of my less than expert views. I hope that this would be
what the Chinese would refer to as 拋磚引玉, or throw a stone to draw a
jade.
1. This is long time in the making. I would even postulate that it began
with Ming-ji Reformation (明治維新) in the mid-19th century. If this is
indeed true, patience seems to be an ultimate virtue.
2. The very first Nobel laureate came in 1949, when Hideki Yukawa of
“Kyoto Imperial University,” now Kyoto University won it in
physics. It is interesting that in 1949, Yukawa was a visiting
professor at Columbia University. I recalled Professor T. D. Lee told
me a long time ago when I was visiting his “tiny” office in the
Physics Building of Columbia University that the former occupant of
his office was Yukawa!
3. Japanese scientists are mostly all home-grown. This is, in my opinion,
fundamentally important because it has as much scientific as it has
psychological impact on aspiring young minds. For example. of the
eight since 2000, you would notice that only 2 have US citizenships.
However, even for those two, they completed their doctorates in
Japan which means that they already inherited the Japanese scientific
tradition. For Japanese higher education, I think this must also mean
that it has rendered in the last century its own universities to be as
good as possible scientifically on the world stage. In this regard, it is
interesting that whatever current ranking one wants to utilize,
University of Tokyo and University of Kyoto always appear on top.
A good friend of mine from one of the best US universities once told
me that “the definition of a great university is that it can IGNORE
rankings!”
4. After WWII, Japanese government, despite its ups and downs (and a
very good Japanese leading physicist and friend once told me that it
is mostly downs than ups,) its support of science and science
education never wavered or retreated. In the second half of the 20th
century, what ever Japanese built with public funds, they always built
some of the best facilities, if not the best. Examples are numerous. In
areas I am familiar with, such as Super-Kamiokande neutrino
observatory, SPRING8, a world renowned 3rd generation synchrotron
radiation facility, and so on, once they are up and running, the world
scientists would converge there. I am sure that in other areas of
science, such as life sciences, the Japanese Government support is
just as aggressive and sustaining. In my opinion, the support of such
facilities from the Government is probably not because it wants to
win some prizes (and of course prizes are good to have as icing on a
cake,) but to build a landscape of supreme scientific excellence. Once
that landscape is built and psychologically penetrated into the
aspiring young minds, and this will take enormous resources and
time (hence patience is really needed,) outstanding science will
emerge! Few nations in Asia seem to have “stomachs” for patience.
This is an important and profound lesson one can learn from the
Japanese, in my opinion.
5. Building scientific legacy, traditions and schools of thought. This is
as true in science as it is in humanities. The best example as I have
mentioned yesterday is the legacy of Yukawa (Nobel in 1949) and
Tomonaga (Nobel in 1972.) However, legacy is great to have if one
can build on it, and with all these Japanese Nobel accolades in the
new century, the Japanese were relentless in leveraging the legacy to
greatly enhance its scientific excellence.
