Yukawa, Hideki, originally Hideki Ogawi 1907-81
Japanese physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Tokyo, he was educated at Kyoto Imperial University and after graduating in 1929, he was appointed lecturer there. In 1933 he became a lecturer at Osaka Imperial University and received his doctorate there in 1938. The following year he returned to Kyoto as Professor of Theoretical Physics (1939-50) and he later became director of the Kyoto Research Institute for Fundamental Physics (1953-70). In 1935 he suggested that a strong short-range attractive interaction between neutrons and protons would overcome the electrical repulsion between protons. The existence of the intermediate particles which propagate the interaction was confirmed by Cecil Powell's discovery in 1947 of the p-meson or pion. Yukawa also predicted the capture of atomic electrons by the nucleus, which was soon observed. For his work on quantum theory and nuclear physics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1949, the first Japanese to be so honoured.