Susumu Okubo
Susumu Okubo | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 2, 1930 |
| Died | July 17, 2015 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | Japanese, American |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo University of Rochester |
| Known for | Okubo algebra OZI rule Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula |
| Spouse | Mary Ōkubo |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Wigner Medal (2006) Sakurai Prize (2005) Nishina Memorial Prize (1976) Guggenheim Fellowship (1966) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Elementary particle physics |
| Institutions | University of Rochester |
| Doctoral advisor | David Feldman |
Susumu Okubo (大久保 進, Ōkubo Susumu; 2 March 1930 – July 17, 2015) was a Japanese theoretical physicist at the University of Rochester. Ōkubo worked primarily on elementary particle physics. He is famous for the Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula for mesons and baryons in the quark model; this formula correctly predicts the relations of masses of the members of SU(3) multiplets in terms of hypercharge and isotopic spin. Ōkubo died in July 2015.
Ōkubo began study at the University of Tokyo in 1949 and received his bachelor's degree there in 1952. He became a graduate student at the University of Rochester in 1954, where he earned his PhD in 1958 with David Feldman as thesis advisor. Afterwards, he was a postdoc in 1959/60 at the University of Naples, in 1960/61 at CERN, and then in 1962 began researching again at the University of Rochester, where he became a professor in 1964 and retired in 1996 as an emeritus professor.