Oda Minoru

Oda Minoru ( Japanese 小田 稔 ; born February 24, 1923 near Sapporo ; † March 1, 2001 ) was a Japanese astrophysicist. He was a pioneer of astronomy using X-ray satellites in Japan.

Life

Oda graduated from Osaka University in 1944 and then dealt with cosmic radiation . In 1953 he went to Bruno Rossi at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to study X-ray astronomy . After returning to Tokyo University , he initiated a satellite research program there. He went back to MIT and then became project manager at the National Institute for Space and Aeronautics (ISAS) . In 1984 he became its general director. In 1994 he became director of the newly established International Institute for Advanced Studies near Osaka. Most recently, he was President of Tokyo University of Information Science until his death .

In the early 1980s he was an advisor to the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture . From 1988 to 1993 he was President of RIKEN .

In addition to his pioneering role in X-ray astronomy in Japan, where he in particular X-ray binaries examined and in 1966 a modulation collimator invented, which allowed a more accurate localization of X-ray sources, he was generally regarded as a promoter of space exploration known in Japan. His group was responsible for the Japanese X-ray satellites Hakuchō (which was launched in 1979 to replace the failed SAS-3 ), Tenma , Ginga and ASCA . In the 1980s, he was looking for coincidences of X-ray bursts with optical observations from earth-based telescopes. He also initiated X-ray observation of the Sun with the Hinotori and Yohkoh satellites and was involved in the Japanese mission to Halley's Comet and in the initiation of the Halca satellite.

He was married with two children who became scientists.

In 1986 Oda was honored as a person with special cultural merits , in 1992 he received the Marcel Grossmann Award . He also received the Asahi Prize , the Nishina Prize in 1966 , the Onshi Prize. He also received the Theodore von Karman Award from the International Academy of Astronautics (1987) and the COSPAR Space Science Award (1996). In 1993 he was awarded the Order of Culture and in 1999 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Web links

• John Maddox: Obituary . In: Nature . tape 410 , no. 6831 , 2001, doi : 10.1038 / 35073743 ( nature.com ).
• Lynn Cominsky: Obituary at the AAS. Archived from the original on July 16, 2001 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ from Karman Award. IAA, accessed on October 19, 2018 . 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Oda is the family name, Minoru the first name.