Akira Yamamoto awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon

On 28 April, the Japanese government announced the winners of the “Medal with Purple Ribbon” for 2016, and Akira Yamamoto, Professor Emeritus of KEK and Regional Director for Asia of Linear Collider Collaboration, is one of them. He receives the Medal for his contribution to the advancement of superconducting technology. This medal is awarded to individuals who have contributed to academic and artistic developments, improvements and accomplishments.

Akira Yamamoto in his office at KEK Image: KEK

Yamamoto has been working on various projects including TRISTAN at KEK, BESS at NASA, U.S., the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland, to name a few. “My carreer might seem mercurial, but I worked on my job with a single-mindedness of purpose – to advance  superconducting technology for particle physics studies,” he said.

He started his carrier in 1977, to develop superconducting magnet technology for the TRISTAN TOAZ detector. TRISTAN accelerator was a world first accelerator practically applied the superconducting RF technology. “We started from scratch and directly built the operating machine. This is something we can be proud of,” said Yamamoto.

Yamamoto said modestly: “I might not be talented enough as an experimental physicist, but I can say I am good at supporting the experiments from a technical development point of view. I am proud of my job to support behind the scenes. This is a great job, and hope many young scientists may have similar ways with me.”