Yoichiro Nambu (南部 陽一郎, Nambu Yōichirō, born January 18, 1921) was a Japanese-born American physicist and former professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his contributions to the field of theoretical physics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008 for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.

Nambu was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1921. After graduating from Fukui Secondary High School in Fukui City, he enrolled in the Tokyo Imperial University and studied physics. He received his B.S. in 1942 and D.Sc. in 1952. In 1945 he married Chieko Hida and has one son, Jun-ichi. In 1949 he was appointed to associate professor at the Osaka City University and promoted to professorship the next year at the age of 29.

In 1952 he was invited by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey to study. He moved to the University of Chicago in 1954 and was promoted to professor in 1958. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1970.

He is famous for having proposed the “color charge” of quantum chromodynamics, for having done early work on spontaneous symmetry breaking in particle physics, and for having discovered that the dual resonance model could be explained as a quantum mechanical theory of strings. He is accounted as one of the founders of string theory.

The Nambu-Goto action in string theory is named after Nambu and Tetsuo Goto. Also, massless bosons arising in field theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking are sometimes referred to as Nambu-Goldstone bosons.

Nambu won numerous honors and awards including the Dannie Heineman Prize (1970), the J. Robert Oppenheimer Prize (1977), Japan’s Order of Culture (1978), the U.S.’s National Medal of Science (1982), the Max Planck Medal (1985), the Dirac Prize (1986), the Sakurai Prize (1994), the Wolf Prize in Physics (1994/1995), the Bogoliubov Prize (2003), the Franklin Institute’s Benjamin Franklin Medal (2005) and the Pomeranchuk Prize (2008).

After more than 50 years as a professor, his latest role included serving as a Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at The University of Chicago’s Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute.

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Nambu Award Committee:

Charter Member

Komatsu America Corp.

Molex Inc.

Omron Management Center of America, Inc.

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Nambu Awards:

2012: New Trier High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place, Overall High School Division)

2012: Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 2nd Place, Overall High School Division)

2013: Niles North High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place, Category Gravity Vehicle)

2013: Rockford Auburn High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place, Category Problem Solving)

2014: Loyola Academy (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place, MAGLEV)

2014: Harry D. Jacobs High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 2nd Place, Circuit Lab)

2015: Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Scrambler [Group AA])

2015: Farmington Central High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Scrambler [Group A])

2016: New Trier High School (Illinois Science Olympiad Scrambler [Group AA])

2016: Rockford Christian High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Scrambler [Group A])

2017: Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Remote Sensing [Group AA])

2017: Beacon Academy (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Remote Sensing [Group A])

2018: Neuqua Valley High School (Illinois Science Olympiad Remote Sensing [Group AA])

2018: Edwardsville High School (Illinois Science Olympiad Remote Sensing [Group A])

2019: New Trier High School (Illinois Science Olympiad Mission Possible – Group AA)

2019: Durand High School (Illinois Science Olympiad Mission Possible – Group A)

2020: Due to the pandemic awards were not presented in 2020

2021: Niles North High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1^st Place Dynamic Planet – Group AA)

2021: Niles West High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1^st Place Dynamic Planet – Group A)

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News Links:

New Trier Receives Nambu Award

Photos:

Recipients of the 2015 Nambu Award

Farmington Central High School (Illinois Science Olympiad 1st Place-Scrambler [Group A])

Recipients of the 2017 Nambu Award

Adlai E. Stevenson High School and Beacon Academy with Dr. Negishi and I.S.O. representatives