Akito Arima

Who is Akito Arima?

Akito Arima is a Japanese nuclear physicist, known for the interacting boson model.

Arima was born 1930 in Osaka. He studied at the University of Tokyo, where he received his doctorate in 1958. He became a research associate at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, the University of Tokyo in 1956. He became a lecturer in 1960, and an associate professor at the Department of Physics in 1964. He was promoted to a full professor in 1975. He was president of the University of Tokyo during 1989-1993. In 1993, he moved to Hosei University. Since 1993, he has been scientific adviser of the Ministry of Education and from 1993 to 1998 president of RIKEN.

He was a visiting professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1974, he founded the interacting boson model with Francesco Iachello.

In 1998 he entered the Diet of Japan as a member of the House of Councillors for the Liberal Democratic Party. He was Minister of Education until 1999 under the government of Keizo Obuchi. After the cabinet reshuffle in 1999, he served as Director of the Science Museum. From 2000 he was chairman of the Japan Science Foundation.