Biography of RYOGO KUBO

BIOGRAPHY OF RYOGO KUBO ( 1920 - 1995 )

born Feb. 15, 1920, Japan.
died March 31, 1995, Japan.

Ryogo Kubo (February 15, 1920 - March 31, 1995) was a Japanese theoretical physicist, best known for his works in statistical physics and statistical mechanics.
Ryogo Kubo studied physics at the University of Tokyo, (Master degree 1941). Since then he worked at the University of Tokyo (from 1954 professor of physics). His Ph.D. thesis was devoted to the polymer physics. Then he worked with K. Tomita on the statistical theory of nuclear spin resonance and relaxation. An improvement in the general formulation of the theory was achieved by Kubo and Tomita in their treatment of magnetic resonance absorption via a linear theory of irreversible processes. In this theory the important quantities are frequency-dependent susceptibilities which are expressed in terms of spin correlation functions.
In the early 1950s, Kubo made a series of important research on the theory the response properties of near-equilibrium condensed-matter systems, in particular the understanding of electron transport and conductivity, through the Kubo formalism, the Green's functions approach to linear response theory for quantum systems.
The linear response theory was anticipated in many works on the theory of transport phenomena and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The important contributions have been made by many authors ( W. Heisenberg, N.N. Bogoliubov, M. S. Green, H. B. Callen, Titeika, etc). It is, however, to the works of Kubo that the major contribution in this field is due.
By solving the Liouville equation to the first order in the external electric field, he formulated an expression for the electric conductivity in microscopic terms. Kubo used linear response theory to give exact expressions for transport coefficients in terms of correlation functions for the equilibrium system. To evaluate such correlation functions for any particular system, approximations have to be made.
Kubo contributed a lot of new ideas and approaches to various directions of statistical physics and solid state physics. In 1977 Ryogo Kubo was awarded the Boltzmann Medal for his contributions to the theory of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and to the theory of fluctuation phenomena. He is cited particularly for his work in the establishment of the basic relations between transport coefficients and equilibrium time correlation functions: the GREEN-KUBO relations with which his name is generally associated.

Ryogo Kubo was the President of the Physical Society of Japan (1964-1965) and the member of many foreign academies. Since 1985 he was professor of physics at the KEIO University, Yokohama.

P. W. Anderson, NOBEL PRIZE Laureate, emphasized the role of Ryogo Kubo in his interest in the novel methods of statistical mechanics: "One important experience was Ryogo Kubo's convincing the Japanese in 1952 that they should invite as their first Fulbright scholar in physics an unknown 28-year-old".

In 1981, the theoretical physicist Ryogo Kubo (a pioneer in the field of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics) spent the Spring in Leiden as a visiting professor at the Instituut-Lorentz. (He was the Lorentz Professor of that year.) Kubo recorded his impressions in a sketch book, as he was used to do when traveling abroad. Shortly before his death in 1995, Kubo's sketches with comments were reproduced and distributed among his friends. Here is a selection.

L. M. Brown in his Japan memoirs mentioned Ryogo Kubo in the following words:"The small space I was given for my remarks prevents a more substantive account, and thus I have presented mostly a list of names of physicists who have helped spread the fame of Japanese physics. I cannot close without mentioning a very great physicist and kind personality, the late Ryogo Kubo. My wife and I had the great pleasure to live in his house in Tokyo for several months in 1984, and to come to know him and his family, when I was working on the Japan-USA project in Yokohama with Michiji Konuma. Kubo-san was a worthy global representative of all that is best in Japan, and a teacher and scholar who has helped to insure a great future for Japanese physics".

List of books available in English:
* Statistical mechanics : an advanced course with problems and solutions / Ryogo Kubo, in cooperation with Hiroshi Ichimura, Tsunemaru Usui, Natsuki Hashitsume (1965, 7th edit.1988)
* Many-body theory : lectures / edited by Ryo-go Kubo(1966)
* Dynamical processes in solid state optics / edited by Ryo-go Kubo and Hiroshi Kamimura(1967)
* Thermodynamics : an advanced course with problems and solutions / Kubo Ryogo (1968)
* Statistical physics of charged particle systems / edited by Ryogo Kubo and Taro Kihara (1969)
* Solid state physics / edited by Ryogo Kubo and Takeo Nagamiya ; translator, Scripta-Technica, Inc. ; editor of English ed., Robert S. Knox (1969)
* Physics of quantum fluids / edited by Ryo-go Kubo and Fumihiko Takano (1971)
* Relaxation of elementary excitations : proceedings of the Taniguchi International Symposium, Susono-shi, Japan, October 12-16, 1979 / editors, R. Kubo and E. Hanamura (1980)
* Selected papers of professor Ryogo Kubo on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday / edited by Executive Committee on the Commemoration of Professor Kubo's Sixtieth Birthday (1980)
* Statistical physics / M. Toda, R. Kubo, N. Saito- (1983-1985)
* Equilibrium statistical mechanics / M. Toda, R. Kubo, N. Saito^ (1983 2nd edit. 1992)
* Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics / R. Kubo, M. Toda, N. Hashitsume (1985 2nd edit. 1991)
* Evolutionary trends in the physical sciences : proceedings of the Yoshio Nishina centennial symposium, Tokyo, Japan, December 5-7, 1990 (1991)

There are a few places where the biography of RYOGO KUBO can be found.

Wikipedia electronic Encyclopedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/) , an article RYOGO KUBO.

Quick SEEK ENCYCLOPEDIA, an article RYOGO KUBO.

Full Biography of Ryogo KUBO can be found at: The entire publication list of Ryogo Kubo, created by Yoshitaka Tanimura:
http://theochem.kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp/tanimura/