Japanese physicist Toshihide Maskawa speaks at a press conference in Kyoto after he was named one of the winners. Japan's Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu of the U.S. won the 2008 Nobel Physics Prize for groundbreaking theoretical work in fundamental particles.
Credit: AFP
The most ambitious experimental step was taken last month, with the unveiling of the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest particle smasher, in Geneva.
Maskawa said he was delighted that his forerunner, Nambu, had become a laureate. "I am happy that Mr. Nambu has won it. I thought there was a bigger chance this year," Maskawa said, as quoted by Jiji Press.
Kobayashi meanwhile said he was stunned to get the news from the Nobel committee."It's a great honour. I couldn't believe it," he told Swedish Radio in an interview, adding that he "didn't expect it."
The High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation (KEK) near Tokyo, where Kobayashi works, saluted the winners. "It's great news for KEK as well. Professor Kobayashi, Professor Maskawa and Professor Nambu have all made great contributions," said KEK spokesman Yohei Morita.
French physicist Yves Sacquin, of the Institute for Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe in Paris, said the "Kobayashi-Maskawa (theories) are the template for our daily work."
"All the world started looking"
He said: "As soon as Kobayashi and Maskawa predicted there must be novel quarks, all the physicists in the world started to look for these new particles."
On Monday, French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won the Medicine Prize, the first of the prestigious awards to be announced this year.
The Chemistry Prize laureates will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the Literature Prize on Thursday and the Peace Prize on Friday. The Economics Prize will wrap up the awards on October 13.
Laureates receive a gold medal, a diploma and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.42 million dollars, 1.02 million euros) which can be split between up to three winners per prize.
The formal awarding of the prizes will take place in Stockholm on December 10.
