Dr. Masaomi Tanaka, a former project researcher at IPMU, was awarded Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists.
This is awarded to young researchers who submitted doctoral thesis which potentially develops a new area in natural science (including science, engineering, medical science, pharmaceutical science, and agricultural science).
30 researchers from the wide area of science are awarded in this year.
The ceremony was held on 2012 Feb 3.
Dr. M.Tanaka
Dr. Tanaka submitted his doctoral thesis entitled "Supernovae in Three Dimensions" to University of Tokyo in 2009.
He has studied "supernova", a brilliant explosion of a star in the Universe, by theoretical and observational approaches.
Supernovae are the explosions of stars at the end of their lives.
Various chemical elements around us, such as carbon, oxygen or iron, are mostly synthesized in the stars, and ejected into the Universe by supernova explosions. However, the mechanism of supernova explosions has not been clarified for long time.
Dr. Tanaka has performed detailed simulations of radiation from supernova explosions.
Based on these theoretical expectations, he has performed polarimetric observations of supernovae with Subaru Telescope.
By the observations, he showed that supernovae are not spherically symmetric, but actually have a three-dimensional structure.
Recently, such a multi-dimensional structure is thought to be a key for successful supernova explosions.
His research results have made a big contribution to our understanding of the mechanism of supernova explosions.
Dr.Tanaka transfered to National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) as an assisitant professor in Dec2011.
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