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Naoki Yoshida, professor at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, has an international reputation for his theoretical studies in astrophysics and cosmology, particularly for his groundbreaking work on star formation in the early universe. Now he is being honoured for his achievements as a researcher as well as his services to the mutual understanding of culture and society in Germany and Japan with the Humboldt Foundation’s Philipp Franz von Siebold Award.
Yoshida completed his doctorate in 2002 at LMU Munich and has since continuously worked to strengthen ties between Germany and Japan. He plays a crucial role in the Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations that is headed by top German and British institutes.
For the last 13 years, Yoshida has been organising bi-annual workshops involving Japanese business leaders and European, especially German, researchers at the University of Tokyo. More than 120 foreign researchers have already participated in the events. The careers of many young researchers from Germany and Japan have benefited from international cooperation with Yoshida.
How are stars formed?
Naoki Yoshida’s research work has produced groundbreaking insights into our understanding of star formation and Black Holes in the last ten billion years. Modern astronomical observations have discovered a raft of celestial objects that already existed when the universe was only a fraction of the age it is today. But how precisely was this complex cosmic structure formed in the young universe? Yoshida developed his own computer model and showed that massive stars are formed out of tiny density fluctuations left over from the Big Bang.
Whilst conducting research at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Bonn (1998-2001), Yoshida and his colleagues also developed an efficient computer programme for simulating gravitational dynamics which has established itself as a standard tool in computational physic and astrophysics.
Naoki Yoshida‘s research has already earned him multiple awards, including the 2008 Young Scientist Prize of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics as well as the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Prize and the Japan Academy Medal in 2017. In 2021, one of his simulations reached the final of the ACM Gordon Bell Prize.
The Philipp Franz von Siebold Award
The Philipp Franz von Siebold Award honours renowned Japanese researchers from all disciplines. It is traditionally presented to the recipient by Germany’s Federal President during the Humboldt Foundation’s annual meeting in Berlin. The Philipp Franz von Siebold Award was established in 1978 by Germany’s then Federal President Walter Scheel during a state visit to Japan. It is presented every year to a Japanese researcher or academic in recognition of outstanding contributions to improving the mutual understanding of culture and society in Germany and Japan. The award is valued at €60,000.