Koshiba, Masatoshi

views updated

Masatoshi Koshiba, 1926–, Japanese physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Tokyo, 1955. He has been a professor at the Univ. of Tokyo since 1958. Koshiba received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics with Riccardo Giacconi and Raymond Davis for their pioneering contributions to astrophysics. Koshiba and Davis are credited with the detection of cosmic neutrinos, the most elusive particles in the universe. Their work has led to a new field of research known as neutrino astronomy, which is important to particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.