"To Young Researchers of the Asia-Pacific"

In science, creative discoveries are not made by people working alone, but are achieved by working together with like-minded colleagues. And, they are, either directly or indirectly, built upon the cumulative achievements of other leading scientists. This has certainly been my own experience. If I hadn’t met Dr. Toshihide Maskawa, who shared the Nobel Prize with me, I would not have been able to advance my research to the point of proposing the 6-quark theory of CP violation asymmetry, for which we received the Prize. Furthermore, that discovery would not have been thinkable if it had not been for rapid advances made in elucidating elementary particles in the 1970s and the long era of trial-and-error investigation preceding that.

HOPE Meetings are designed to give the young participants abundant opportunities to interact with leading scientists of their era. By learning from the experiences of these scientists —how they went about making their breakthrough discoveries— the participating doctoral students will gain knowledge that can be applied to their own future endeavors. But just as valuable as that knowledge: these scientists will also share with the students their proclivities and sensitivities as researchers.

By taking advantage of this opportunity to meet and interact with other researchers of your generation from the Asia-Pacific region —researchers with aspirations similar to your own— you will be able to make close friendships that thrive well into the future. Through these collaborations, I’m sure you will go on to make new discoveries —one upon another.