DATE2021.05.21 #Awards & Prizes

Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa of the International Research Center for the Big Bang Space received the 2021 Young Scientist Award from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa

Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa of the Research Center for the Early Universe has received the Young Scientist Award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his "Research for the Verification of Gravity Theory by Observation of Gravitational Waves". Einstein's general theory of relativity is a brilliant theory that explains all gravitational phenomena observed to date in a consistent manner, but it is not considered to be the final theory because it contains unsolved problems such as the inability to develop a consistent quantum theory and to solve the cosmic term problem observed as dark energy. Therefore, it is not considered to be a final theory. Therefore, the search for a theory of gravity that surpasses Einstein's is a major theoretical and observational challenge, and the gravitational wave observations realized in 2016 are expected to provide significant clues to this, and new knowledge is already being obtained through the generation, propagation, and polarization properties of gravitational waves. Assistant Prof. Nishizawa has been working on the gravitational wave observation for more than 20 years. Assistant Professor Nishizawa has conducted extensive research on gravitational waves, ranging from the testability of various theories of gravity to the effects of environmental noise on laser interferometer observations. In particular, the general parameter for the verification of gravity theories using gravitational waves that he introduced in 2017 is highly appreciated, as it enables us to search a wide range of theories at once. In an era when our country will make significant experimental contributions to this field through KAGRA in the future, his role in theoretical analysis is very significant, and this is why he was awarded this prize. We congratulate him on his achievement.

2021 Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/mext_00547.html

(Responsibility: Professor Junichi Yokoyama, Research Center for the Early Universe)