Discussion journal of the Mössbauer Community

[Nagy Denes Lajos <nagy AT rmki.kfki.hu>]

In Memoriam Francis Eiichi Fujita

It is with great sadness that the International Board on the Applications 
of the Mossbauer Effect (IBAME) announces the passing of


                       Professor Francis Eiichi Fujita

                         who died on 1 December 2007.

Professor Fujita's death is an irreparable loss for the international 
Mossbauer Community. We shall miss him. Our sympathy goes to his family, 
friends and colleagues.

Below you will find the obituary written by Prof. Y. Yoshida, Member of 
IBAME.


                                  D.L. Nagy
                                Chair, IBAME

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Professor Dr. Francis Eiichi Fujita passed on 1st of December 2007 and the 
funeral ceremony was held in the Catholic Church of Ashiya, Kobe on 2nd of 
December.

Francis Eiichi Fujita was born in Hon Kong in 1924. He graduated at The 
University of Tokyo and subsequently he worked as a research assistant in 
the Research Institute of Iron, Steel and Other Metals, Tohoku University 
and, furthermore, as a group leader in the Japan Atomic Energy Research 
Institute. After staying at the Brookhaven National Laboratory as a 
research associate, he was invited as a professor of metal physics to the 
Faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University in 1963. After he retired 
from Osaka University and became a professor emeritus in 1989, he moved to 
Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology, Fukuroi and later served as 
a science adviser in Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. He devoted not only 
for education, research works, but also for a member of various meeting 
committees and a sub-chairman of the Japan Institute of Metals. He was a 
representative scientist of the Japanese Mossbauer community over many 
years and a member of the organizing committee of ICAME in Kyoto 1979. It 
is well known that Prof. Francis Eiichi Fujita was one of the most 
familiar friends of Prof. Ulrich Gonser, who passed on 12. December 2007. 
His enthusiastic efforts, especially in the education and the research 
works in metal physics, were so fruitful that his many students have 
excellent contributions to the academic and the industrial societies.

Francis Eiichi Fujita was one of the pioneers in metal physics in Japan. 
He studied lattice defects including dislocation theory, deformation and 
fracture mechanism and radiation damages in wide varieties of materials. 
Alloy phase diagrams, martensitic transformation, hydrogen in metals and 
amorphous materials were studied using electron microscope, Mossbauer 
Spectroscopy and other new methods in materials science. He was highly 
appreciated through his scientific achievements. He was awarded the Honda 
memorial prize in 2000 and was decorated with Zuihou Chujyushou (one of 
the most honorable medals) from the Emperor in 2006.

His warm character and sincere attitude toward scientific works shall be 
never forgotten.

              Yutaka Yoshida
               IBAME, Japan