Prof. Takaaki Kajita

2015 Nobel Laureate for Physics at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research at the University of Tokyo/Japan

Professor Kajita’s experiments have become some of the most promising, powerful, versatile and efficient ways to explore both particle physics and the Universe itself.

Biography:

Prof. Takaaki Kajita is a Japanese physicist and a professor at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research at the University of Tokyo who was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the oscillations of neutrinos from one flavor to another which proved that those subatomic particles have mass. His team at Super-Kamiokande found that when cosmic rays hit the Earth’s atmosphere, the resulting neutrinos switched between two flavors before they reached the detector under Mount Ikenoyama in Kamioka, Japan. This discovery proved the existence of neutrino oscillation and indicated that the Standard Model, which assumed neutrinos to be mass-less, is incomplete. The experiments conducted by Professor Kajita and his colleagues have become some of the most promising, powerful, versatile and efficient ways to explore both particle physics and the Universe itself. Professor Kajita has served as the President of the Science Council of Japan and as Director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research of the University of Tokyo from 2008 to 2022. He is also the principal investigator of another ICRR project located in Kamioka, the KAGRA gravitational wave project.

Topic of keynote speech:

• The importance of science for peace-building

Schedule:

Thursday, April 23, 2026:

14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at Academia Sinica in Taipei

Further information and free seat reservation via phone +886-2-2789-9380 or email
emma@as.edu.tw