CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Hidetoshi Katori

engineer in Japan

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ21698500 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hidetoshi Katori (香取秀俊, Katori Hidetoshi; born 27 September 1964) is a Japanese physicist and professor at the University of Tokyo best known for having invented the magic wavelength technique for ultra precise optical lattice atomic clocks. Since 2011, Katori is also Chief Scientist at the Quantum Metrology Lab, RIKEN.

Recently, Katori's group performed a measurement of gravitational redshift with two transportable strontium optical lattice clocks over nearly the entire height of the Tokyo Skytree, setting a new record for the best ground-based test of general relativity.

Recognition

2005 – Award of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

2005 – Springer Nature Applied Physics Award

2006 – Japan IBM Science Prize

2008 – I. I. Rabi Award

2010 – Ichimura Academic Award

2011 – Award of Minister of MEXT

2011 – Philipp Franz von Siebold-Preis, Germany

2012 – Asahi Prize

2013 – Nishina Memorial Prize

2013 – Fujiwara Prize

2013 – Toray Award in Science and Technology

2014 – Medal with Purple Ribbon

2015 – Japan Academy Prize (academics)

2017 – Leo Esaki Prize

2022 – Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

2022 – Honda Prize

2022 – Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist

Selected publications

Ushijima, Ichiro; Takamoto, Masao; Das, Manoj; Ohkubo, Takuya; Katori, Hidetoshi (9 February 2015). "Cryogenic optical lattice clocks". Nature Photonics. 9 (3). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 185–189. Bibcode:2015NaPho...9..185U. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2015.5. ISSN 1749-4885.

Yamaguchi, Atsushi; Fujieda, Miho; Kumagai, Motohiro; Hachisu, Hidekazu; Nagano, Shigeo; Li, Ying; Ido, Tetsuya; Takano, Tetsushi; Takamoto, Masao; Katori, Hidetoshi (4 August 2011).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hidetoshi Katori” as engineer in Japan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1964, 2011, 2005, 2006—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1964-09-27. The account is most persuasive where Hidetoshi, Katori and engineer can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as engineer in Japan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21698500. VIAF identifies the subject as 128251546. The Library of Congress control number is no2010105151. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 2011, 2005 and 2006.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hidetoshi Katori”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hidetoshi Katori primary sources, Hidetoshi Katori archive and Hidetoshi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hidetoshi Katori”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hidetoshi Katori” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.