Japanese-Born Scientist Manabe Wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics

Tokyo, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Tuesday that it will award the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics to Japanese-born U.S. scientist Syukuro Manabe for establishing climate models that contribute mainly to predicting global warming. Manabe will receive the prize, together with two other scientists, from Germany and Italy, "for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems," the academy said. Manabe, 90, is a senior meteorologist at Princeton University in the United States. Born in Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, he moved to the United Sates in 1958, continuing his studies at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other places. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 1975. The two other laureates are Klaus Hasselmann, 89, professor at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and Giorgio Parisi, 73, professor at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. From the 1960s, Manabe laid the foundation for the development of so-called climate models, which enable the simulation on the computer of climate change mechanisms involving various complex factors, by combining calculation models for the atmosphere and oceans. He succeeded in demonstrating "how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to increased temperatures at the surface of the Earth," according to the Swedish academy. Manabe's research results were cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's first assessment report published in 1990. Hasselmann developed methods for identifying specific effects on the Earth's climate from natural phenomena and human activities. Parisi contributed to the theory of complex systems, which discovers hidden patterns in disordered complex materials and random processes, such as in the climate. Manabe became the 28th Japanese-born Nobel laureate, including those with U.S. citizenship, after Akira Yoshino, 73-year-old honorary fellow of Japanese chemical maker Asahi Kasei Corp. <3407>, won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Manabe also became the 12th Japanese winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, after Takaaki Kajita, 62, director of the University of Tokyo's Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, who was awarded it in 2015. The award ceremony usually takes place in Stockholm on Dec. 12. But the laureates this year will receive the awards in their respective countries due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, as the winners last year did. Manabe and Hasselmann will each receive a quarter of the 10-million-Swedish-kronor prize, and the other half will be given to Parisi. END