（English）Overview of the project

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"Crowdfunding Campaign to Recreate Dr. Yoshio Nishina's Laboratory: Passing on a Scientific Mind to Future Generations"　

 

 

 RIKEN Nishina Center 

 

 

 

 

 

As the founder of basic research such as particle/theoretical physics, cosmic ray research, experimental research on nuclear physics using cyclotron and nuclear engineering, Yoshio Nishina opened new doors for modern science in Japan. Also committed to contributing to society, he applied radioisotope produced by cyclotron to chemistry and biology, and used vacuum technology for accelerators to successfully produce penicillin.

Dr. Nishina was born in 1890 in Satosho, Okayama prefecture. He entered the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Imperial University of Tokyo and graduated at the top of his class. After graduation, he joined the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (now RIKEN) as a research student and at the same time, entered the Graduate School of Tokyo Imperial University, where his path to pursue physics began.

 

In 1921, he was sent to Europe for research for one year where he visited Cavendish Laboratory in the UK and Georg August University of Göttingen in Germany. When the time came for his return to Japan in 1923, Nishina wrote a letter to Niels Bohr. The letter filled with his strong desire to study abroad earned Nishina a chance to do research in Bohr’s laboratory amongst the world’s young geniuses.

 

After returning to Japan in 1931, he established the “Nishina Laboratory” at RIKEN located in Bunkyo ward, Tokyo.at the time. Dr. Nishina devoted himself to fostering world-class researchers, and with the Laboratory’s research environment based on the Copenhagen Spirit (a spirit of collaboration to tackle unsolved problems through free and open discussion, regardless of race or affiliation) he brought back from Europe, the best and the brightest across generations gathered. Among them were Dr. Hideki Yukawa and Dr. Shin’ichiro Tomonaga, Japan’s first and second Nobel Prize laureates in physics. The legacy of the Nishina Laboratory still lives on today with Dr. Makoto Kobayashi, Dr. Toshihide Maskawa and Dr. Yoichiro Nambu awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2008.

 

 

 

 “The Nishina Yoshio Memorial Laboratory” will replicate the original laboratory’s scenery by appropriately placed historical materials that he had used from 1931 to 1951 such as a desk, chair, blackboard (replica) and pendant light. We hope that the exhibition will convey the ambience of the free and lively research environment of the Nishina Laboratory based on the Copenhagen Spirit.

The completed “Nishina Yoshio Memorial Laboratory” will be a space for many visitors to learn about Dr. Nishina’s distinguished and diverse achievements as well as how they have led to the research conducted at RNC and in various other fields today.

 

In this project, we wish to make an appeal for donation of funds to cover costs required for design, interior finish work and creation of display items (figure panels, graphics such as chronological table). The total production cost to recreate the Yoshio Nishina Memorial Laboratory is estimated at 26,950,000 yen (about $196,700).

 

While our aim to create a crowdfunding project is to cover a part of the production cost, more importantly, we hope that it will spark interest among many people about Dr. Nishina as well as RNC’s initiatives.

 

We very much appreciate your kind understanding and hope that you will become a fan of RNC through this crowdfunding project.