Ukichiro Nakaya - Life and Research

Life and Research

Nakaya was born near the Katayamazu hot springs in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, near the area depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu, an encyclopedic work published in 1837 that contains 183 sketches of natural snowflake crystals – the subject that became Nakaya's life work. Nakaya later wrote that his father wanted him to be a potter and sent him to live with a potter while he was in primary school. His father died after he finished primary school, but Nakaya's first scientific paper, written in 1924 for the inaugural issue of the proceedings of the Physics Department of Tokyo Imperial University, was devoted to Japanese Kutani porcelain.

Nakaya was inspired to study physics in high school by the nebular hypotheses of Kant and Laplace and by the works of Hajime Tanabe. He majored in experimental physics under Torahiko Terada at Tokyo Imperial University and graduated in 1925. Soon thereafter, he became Terada's research assistant at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). Nakaya studied electrostatic discharge as an assistant professor at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1928 and 1929, he continued his graduate studies at King's College London under Owen Willans Richardson, where he worked with long-wavelength X-rays. In 1930, he became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University, with which he would be associated for the rest of his life, and later that year he received his doctor of science degree from Kyoto Imperial University.

When he arrived at Hokkaido University, the physics department had a minimum of equipment and few research funds. But there was an unlimited supply of natural snow, so Nakaya began his research into snow crystals. From over 3,000 photomicrographs he established a general classification of natural snow crystals. In 1935, he opened the Low Temperature Science Laboratory, and on March 12, 1936, created the first artificial snow crystal.

From 1936 until 1938, Nakaya and his family lived at a hot springs resort on the Izu Peninsula while he recuperated from a bout of clonorchiasis. After his recovery, he began his studies of frost heaving which eventually led to the founding of the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics at Hokkaido University in 1946. In 1941, he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy for his contributions to snow crystal research.

In 1943, two years after the Pacific War began, Nakaya moved to a newly built atmospheric icing observatory at Mt. Niseko-Annupuri, a 1,308 meter (4,290 ft) mountain in Hokkaido. A Zero fighter plane was brought to the observatory in the hope of finding ways to prevent atmospheric icing. The following year, Nakaya moved to the Nemuro coast to study artificial dissipation of fog. After the war, he continued his research for the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics into flood and snowmelt in drainage basins.

Nakaya always enjoyed field work as well as laboratory research. His studies took him to locations ranging from the top of Mauna Loa, Hawaii to the ice island T-3 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In 1949, on the invitation of the International Glaciological Society (an organization in which he later served as co-chairman), Nakaya toured the United States and Canada and attended the meeting establishing SIPRE (Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment). From 1952 until 1954, he was a research fellow at SIPRE. During this time, he lived in Winnetka, Illinois and studied Tyndall figures – melt figures that develop inside large crystals of glacial ice after exposure to bright sunlight, which were first described by the British physicist John Tyndall.

In 1954, Harvard University Press published his Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial, a beautifully illustrated work that summarized his research on snowflake crystals, starting from his work at Hokkaido University. Though long out of print, it still serves as a classic reference on crystal shapes, showing how a scientific investigation can proceed through systematic observation toward an accurate description of a fascinating natural phenomenon.

In 1957 he visited Greenland as a member of the United States expedition for the International Geophysical Year. He visited Greenland several more times, usually staying for a month or two at a time, to observe the glaciological ice cap at the latitude 78° observatory site.

In 1960, Nakaya underwent surgery for prostate cancer at the hospital at the University of Tokyo. He died on April 11, 1962, of osteomyelitis. In recognition of his achievements, he was posthumously decorated with one of the highest orders awarded by the Japanese government.

In 1960, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee named a group of Antarctic islands the "Nakaya Islands" in recognition of his contributions to science. The asteroid 10152 Ukichiro is also named after him.