Makoto Kobayashi
Awards & Honours
5
Awards Won
2
Honours
1
Records
Kobayashi's Nobel Prize is the capstone of a career defined by one of the most elegant predictions in modern physics. The CKM matrix, which he co-created, is now a fundamental tool in every particle physics experiment. His work helped complete the Standard Model and explained why the universe is filled with matter rather than antimatter. The 2008 Nobel recognized not just a single paper, but a lifetime of rigorous thinking that transformed the field.
Awards
Honours & Distinctions
Nobel Prize in Physics
Shared with Toshihide Maskawa and Yoichiro Nambu.
Member of the Japan Academy
Elected for his contributions to physics.
Records & Feats
First to predict three quark families
The 1973 paper with Maskawa was the first to show that at least three families of quarks are necessary to explain CP violation.