DATE2025.01.06 #Awards & Prizes

Dr. Jin Beniyama, Department of Astronomy, received the 41st Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists

Dr. Jin Beniyama

Dr. Jin Beniyama, a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Department of Astronomy, has received the 41st Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists.

While a student at the Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Dr. Beniyama conducted several research projects on Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) . NEAs are observed as fast-moving celestial objects in the sky because they have orbits close to the Earth. They sometimes collide with the earth and affect our society. Therefore, they have attracted attention in recent years from the viewpoints of elucidating the origin of water and life on Earth, mitigating damage caused by meteorite impacts, and elucidating the transport mechanisms of materials in the solar system. It is known that the smaller the size of the NEAs, the more numerous and the higher the frequency of collisions with the Earth. However, due to the difficulty of observation, asteroids smaller than 100 m in diameter have not been well understood until now. Therefore, Dr. Beniyama used the 1.05 m Schmidt Telescope operated by the Kiso Observatory of the Graduate School of Science of The University of Tokyo to conduct a wide-area survey of the sky in visible light with the aim of discovering asteroids that pass near the Earth. He developed an analysis pipeline using a machine learning model and a follow-up observation system, and succeeded in discovering more than 50 NEAs. Furthermore, Dr. Beniyama was the first in the world to clarify the existence of a possible upper limit to the distribution of the rotation period of NEAs from lightcurve observations. In addition, as the Principal Investigator, he has obtained observation time on many telescopes in Japan and abroad, and as the leader of a campaign observation using multiple telescopes, he has united collaborators to produce many scientific results. These achievements were highly evaluated and led to the award.

After receiving the Ph.D., Dr. Beniyama has been working as a visiting researcher at the Laboratoire Lagrange, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, focusing on thermal-infrared observations of small solar system bodies. We look forward to his further activities in the future.

The 41st Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists

(Responsibility: Institute of Astronomy / Associate Professor Shigeyuki Sako)