Yusuke Hagihara

Yusuke Hagihara (萩原雄祐 "Hagihara Yūsuke", March 28 1897 – January 29 1979) was a Japanese astronomer noted for his contributions to celestial mechanics.

Hagihara was born in Osaka, Japan on March 28, 1897. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in astronomy in 1921 and became an assistant professor of astronomy there two years later. At that time the Japanese government sent him abroad as atraveling scholar. Hagihara went to Cambridge Univesrity in Englandto study under the mathematician H.F. Baker and also visited the University of Gottingen and the Sorbonne. He returned to Japan in 1925 but left for the United States three years later to study
dynamical systems theory at Harvard University under G. D. Birkhoff.Hagihara finished his studies at Harvard in 1929 and returned again to the University of Tokyo where, in 1930, he completed a D.Sc. dissertation on the stability of satellite systems. He was promoted to full professor at the University of Tokyo five years later. From 1945 to 1957 he was the director of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory and subsequently was a professor at Tohoku University (1957-1960) and president of Utsunomiya University (1961-1967). In 1961 he was elected vice-president of the International Astronomical Union and president of the IAU's commission on celestial mechanics. He retired from all of his official duties, except for the Japan Academy, in 1967. Hagihara died in Tokyo on January 29, 1979.

The asteroid 1971 Hagihara is named for him.

Honors

* Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
* Chairman of the National Committee of Astronomy (Japan)
* Member Japan Academy
* Member Science Council of Japan
* Order of Cultural Merit (Japan)
* Recipient of the James Craig Watson Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Science (1960)

Works

*cite book | author=Hagihara, Yusuke | title=Celestial mechanics (Vol 1, Vol 2(I), 2(II); revision of 1947 edition) | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=MIT Press | year=1970 - 1972 | id=ISBN 0-262-08037-0 (vol 1)

*cite book | author=Hagihara, Yusuke | title=Celestial mechanics (Vol 3(I), 3(II), Vol 4(I), 4(II), Vol 5(I), 5(II)) | location=Tokyo | publisher=Japan Society For the Promotion of Science | year=1974 - 1976

*cite book | author=Hagihara, Yusuke | title=Theories of equilibrium figures of a rotating homogeneous fluid mass | location=Washington, D.C. | publisher=U. S. Government Printing Office | year=1971 | id=NAS 1.21:186

ources

* Herget, Paul. Yusuke Hagihara. Physics Today, June 1979.

* Kozai, Yoshihide. Yusuke Hagihara. Quart. Jour. Royal Astron. Soc. vol. 20, no. 3 (1979).

* Kozai, Yoshihide. Development of Celestial Mechanics in Japan. Planet. Space Sci. vol. 46, no. 8 (1998).

* McGraw-Hill. McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers. 3 vols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.