Nobel Prize-winner’s lecture attendance doubles in size

Written by changthai11 on Saturday, October 11th, 2008

NOBEL LAUREATE DISCUSSION / Nobel Prize-winner’s lecture attendance doubles in size

KYOTO–Toshihide Masukawa found Thursday that the number of students attending his regular lecture at Kyoto Sangyo University had doubled from before the announcement that he was one of the winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday, the 68-year-old Nobel laureate gave a lecture titled “Oscillation and Waves: B,” a special subject for freshmen in the science department.

Masukawa smiled when he received a bouquet of flowers from one of the university’s graduate school students at the beginning of the lecture.

According to the students who attended the lecture, most of the lecture addressed topics related to the Nobel Prize.

“I was 80 percent sure I would win [the prize], but I didn’t tell anyone, thinking I’d be considered conceited,” Masukawa was quoted as saying during the lecture.

After the lecture, the scientist talked to reporters about the twofold increase in attendees, saying: “It’s just a short-lived social phenomenon. It’ll soon decrease in a week.”

Masukawa added, “I want to enjoy this situation by analyzing why I had more students for today’s lecture and finding out how I can explain the situation as a social phenomenon.”