Portrait of Masatoshi Koshiba

Birthday profile

Masatoshi Koshiba

Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020)

Born
September 19, 1926
Died
November 12, 2020
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1926

About Masatoshi Koshiba

Masatoshi Koshiba (小柴 昌俊, Koshiba Masatoshi; 19 September 1926 – 12 November 2020) was a Japanese physicist and one of the founders of neutrino astronomy. His work with the neutrino detectors Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande was instrumental in detecting solar neutrinos, providing experimental evidence for the solar neutrino problem. Koshiba won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002, jointly with Raymond Davis Jr., "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos". Koshiba was the first Japanese Nobel laureate to hold two doctoral degrees. In addition, he was the second Japanese recipient of both the Nobel Prize and the Wolf Prize. His mentor, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, and his student, Takaaki Kajita, were also Nobel Prize winners in Physics. He was a senior counselor at the International Center for Elementary Particle Physics (ICEPP) and professor at the University of Tokyo. While attending the former First Higher School (now the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo), Masatoshi Koshiba performed very poorly academically. In 2015, Kajita was officially awarded the Nobel Prize and explicitly thanked both Koshiba and Totsuka in his Nobel Lecture for their pivotal contributions.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Masatoshi Koshiba timeline

  1. Koshiba won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002, jointly with Raymond Davis Jr., "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos".
  2. In 2015, Kajita was officially awarded the Nobel Prize and explicitly thanked both Koshiba and Totsuka in his Nobel Lecture for their pivotal contributions.

The world when Masatoshi Koshiba was born

Masatoshi Koshiba was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Masatoshi Koshiba's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.