Japanese nuclear physicist · born 1957
Kōsuke Morita
Kōsuke Morita led the team at RIKEN, near Tokyo, that discovered nihonium, element 113, the first element discovered in Asia.
How Nihonium was found
Starting in 2003, Morita’s team fired zinc ions at a bismuth target for months at a time, using the cold-fusion method. In July 2004 they detected a single atom of element 113. A second came in 2005.
To prove the claim beyond doubt they needed a decay chain leading to known nuclei. After seven more years of running, in August 2012, a third atom provided it. In 2016 the element was named nihonium, from Nihon, Japanese for Japan.
Life and career
Born 1957
Morita was born in Kitakyushu and studied physics at Kyushu University. He spent most of his career at RIKEN and later became a professor at Kyushu University.
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 2004.