Richard K. Yamamoto

Yamamoto died October 16, 2009, of complications related to lung cancer.

Yamamoto was a 2008 winner of MIT's "Infinite Mile Award".

Colleagues have said his management style was low-key, yet effective. Colleague Peter Fisher began working in 1994 with Yamamoto. Fisher said, "He loved to work with students, making things...He was happiest when he had his hands on some knob, adjusting a mirror, and looking at an oscilloscope." Fisher commented, "Dick was a mild-mannered guy, but when push came to shove, he stood up to the system." Fisher described a situation at SLAC when the Center's director was pressuring Yamamoto's team to publish their results, even though the team members were puzzled why two different electron-counting methods produced different results. Yamamoto insisted that they needed to know why the numbers were off, and they only published when they figured it out.

Yamamoto spent his entire career at MIT, first as a researcher at the Laboratory for Nuclear Science in 1963, and as an instructor in 1964. In 1965 he became an assistant professor, and in 1972 a full professor. His colleague Edmund Bertschinger said, "His kindness and gentle enthusiasm helped make the department an exciting and supportive place for everyone in physics."

Yamamoto's first wife Lily is a graphic designer. They had three daughters and eight grandchildren. His second wife, Kathleen (Cougan) Barreto (1955-2012) was from Sunnyvale, California, and had a career in Silicon Valley.

Richard K. Yamamoto (1935–2009) was an elementary particle physicist and professor of physics at MIT focusing primarily on the study of leptons and quarks and their interactions. To this end he was involved with experiments at Brookhaven, Fermilab, and SLAC, including the BaBar Experiment. He was also known for his expertise in building experimental hardware, which he shared with students.

Richard K. Yamamoto was born June 29, 1935, in Hawaii, the son of Richard M. Yamamoto, a service station proprietor, and Yatsuko Yamamoto, a waitress. He became a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1953, earning an A.B. in 1957 and a Ph.D. in 1963, working with advisor Irwin A. Pless.