Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has appointed Masahide YAMAGUCHI, a world-renowned theoretical physicist and a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), as the co-director of the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe. He is to lead the ‘Astrophysics and Cosmology Group’, which was launched on March 1.

Director Yamaguchi graduated from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and received a Ph.D. in Physics from the same institute. He has been previously affiliated with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and worked at the Aoyama Gakuin University. Since 2010, he has served as a professor at the Department of Physics at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has received a number of major scientific awards such as the Excellent Research Paper Award ('14) and the Excellent Researcher Award ('15) given by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Yukawa-Kimura Prize ('19), and a Science and Technology Medal from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) ('20).

The addition of the new research group within the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe is expected to increase the international influence of the research center. CHOI Kiwoon, the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe (Particle Theory and Cosmology Group), said, “The field of theoretical physics is advanced by a community of researchers around the world with the common goal of understanding the fundamental laws of nature and the origin of the universe.” “As Director Yamaguchi, an authority in the Astrophysics and Cosmology field has joined our Center, we hope to lead the community by creating more influential research.”

Director Yamaguchi said, “We will conduct challenging research on novel topics by attracting world-class researchers,” adding, “At the same time, we will help IBS’s quest to raise the visibility of cosmology and astrophysics by creating an open research environment for young researchers.”

Meanwhile, IBS has been promoting the clustering of research centers into Institutes. Around four research centers in related fields are clustered into a single Institute to strengthen the connection and cooperation among researchers. So far, the Particle and Nuclear Physics Institute (launched on Dec. 21), to which the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe belongs, and the Life Sciences Institute (launched on Jul. 22), were launched.

President NOH Do Young said, “If the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe presents a theory related to dark matter, joint research within the Institute can be effectively conducted in such a way that the Center for Underground Physics, which is operating the underground laboratory 'YemiLab', can find evidence supporting it.” Theoretical and experimental research using advanced infrastructure must go hand in hand to complete the 'big history' of mankind.”