3 Japanese win Nobel prize for Physics

Stockholm, Oct 8: Two Japanese and a US scientist of Japanese origin shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for physics, according to the prize committee on Tuesday, Oct 7.

Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa were named for the year's Nobel Laureates in Physics during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Japan-born US citizen Yoichiro Nambu of the Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago was awarded "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics", a press statement said.

Makoto Kobayashi of High Energy Accelerator Organisation (KEK) of Tsukuba Japan and Toshihide Maskawa of Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University, Japan were recognised "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature".

The Nobel physics prize has been awarded in recognition of their efforts in explaining the behaviour of sub-atomic particles.

The three men's work, done in the 1950s through the 1970s has been pivotal in shaping modern physics theory.

The winners will be formally awarded at a glittering ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in recognition of the achievements in science, peace, literature and economics.

The prizes bearing the name of Alfred Nobel were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the 1895 will of the Swedish scientist.

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