Publications - History of Science
Book Review
Kono, Hiroto. Review of Helge Kragh, The Names of Science: Terminology and Language in the History of the Natural Sciences. The British Journal for the History of Science, published August 27, 2025.
Book Chapter
Kono, Hiroto. “Building the Blocks of Sciences for Materials: Materials Science Institutions in Japan from a Historical Perspective.” In Between Science and Industry: Institutions in the History of Materials Research, edited by Robert P. Crease, 433–458. Singapore: World Scientific, 2024.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Kono, Hiroto. “Coining a Discipline: The Formation and Perpetuation of a Japanese Branch of Physics of Matter.” Isis 117, no. 2 (2026), forthcoming.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Emergence of ‘Busseiron’ and Its Historiographical Position.” The Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry 49, no. 4 (2022): 157–185.
Kono, Hiroto. “Ryogo Kubo in His Formative Years as a Physicist.” The European Physical Journal H: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Physics 45, nos. 2–3 (2020): 175–204.
Dissertation and Theses
Kono, Hiroto. A Study on the Formation Process of Busseiron. Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Science Tokyo, 2024.
Kono, Hiroto. Ryogo Kubo and His Research in 1941–44. Master’s thesis, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2018.
Kono, Hiroto. “Symposium ‘Social Responsibility of Physicists’ in the Physical Society of Japan and Its Social Context: Analysis Based on an Interview with Kiichi Shiratori.” Science Interpreter Training Program thesis, The University of Tokyo, 2015, 191–216.
Publications - Physics
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Takayama, T., A. Kato, R. Dinnebier, J. Nuss, H. Kono, L. S. I. Veiga, G. Fabbris, D. Haskel, and H. Takagi. “Hyperhoneycomb Iridate β-Li₂IrO₃ as a Platform for Kitaev Magnetism.” Physical Review Letters 114, no. 7 (2015).
Lu, Y. F., H. Kono, T. I. Larkin, A. W. Rost, T. Takayama, A. V. Boris, B. Keimer, and H. Takagi. “Zero-Gap Semiconductor to Excitonic Insulator Transition in Ta₂NiSe₅.” Nature Communications 8 (2017).
Thesis
Kono, Hiroto. Pressure Effects in Exotic Semimetals. Master’s thesis, The University of Tokyo, 2015.
Presentations
Conference Presentations
Kono, Hiroto. “The Arrival of Quantum Mechanics and Japanese Condensed-Matter Physics.” Presented at the symposium “The Reception and Development of Quantum Mechanics in Japan,” The Physical Society of Japan 80th Annual Meeting, September 18, 2025.
Kono, Hiroto. “Mototaro Eguchi and Physics in Early 20th-Century Japan.” Presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Electrets (ISE), September 1, 2025.
Kono, Hiroto. “New Practices from a Dissolved Tradition: The Rise and Fall of ‘Terada Physics’ in Early 20th-Century Japan.” Presented at How Sciences End, July 11, 2025.
Kono, Hiroto. “Words, Categories, and Disciplines of Matter: An Etymological Study on the History of Japanese Physical Sciences of Materials.” Presented at the 27th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, July 4, 2025.
Kono, Hiroto. “A Celebration from the Periphery? Making an Exhibition for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in a Japanese Museum.” Presented at the 27th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, July 2, 2025.
Kono, Hiroto. “Grounding Engineering on Physics, Applying Physics to Industry: The Emergence of Applied Physics in Japan in the Early 20th Century.” Presented at the 27th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, June 30, 2025.
Ariga, Nobumichi, Yusaku Nagata, Hiroto Kono, and Yasuhide Fukumoto. “Isao Imai’s Theoretical Study of High-Speed Airflow as Seen in His Handwritten Notebooks.” Presented at the JSFM Annual Meeting 2024.
Kono, Hiroto. “Between Physics and Chemistry: Studies on Matter in Japan in the 1920s–40s.” Presented at the International Symposium on the History of Modern Physics, September 22, 2024.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Classification of Physics Research and the Transformation of ‘Busseiron.’” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan 79th Annual Meeting, September 16, 2024.
Kono, Hiroto. “On the Materials of Physicist Shoji Nishikawa.” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan 78th Annual Meeting, September 18, 2023.
Kono, Hiroto. “Shoji Nishikawa and His Research and Education in Crystallography.” Presented at the American Institute of Physics Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences 2023, September 1, 2023.
Kono, Hiroto. “A Report on Artefacts 2022 at the Deutsches Museum.” Presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society of Japan, May 28, 2023.
Kono, Hiroto, and Nobumichi Ariga. “Objects in Motion at ‘Kahaku’ and the Historiography of Science and Technology in Japan.” Presented at Artefacts XXVII, October 17, 2022.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Transformation of ‘Busseiron,’ 1943–48.” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan Autumn Meeting 2022 (Condensed Matter Physics and Other Fields), September 12, 2022.
Kono, Hiroto. “Historical Research and Presentation of Scientific Figures Based on Archival Materials: A Case of the ‘Ryogo Kubo Archive.’” Invited talk, July 2, 2022.
Maejima, Masahiro, and Hiroto Kono. “Collection and Preservation of Research Record Materials in Museum Collections and Their Possible Use for Research Activities.” Presented at the Natural Science Archives Study Group, February 22, 2022.
Kono, Hiroto. “Role of Communication and Isolation in Making a Discipline of Busseiron in Japan.” Presented at the 2021 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies, December 20, 2021.
Kono, Hiroto. “Name, Identity, and Discipline Formation: The Development of Busseiron in Japan.” Presented at the 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, July 31, 2021.
Kono, Hiroto. “Ryogo Kubo in His Early Years as Seen through Manuscripts.” Presented at the 25th Kubo Memorial Symposium, April 17, 2021.
Kono, Hiroto. “Building and Managing the ‘Ryogo Kubo Archive’: Current Conditions and Challenges in Preservation and Use.” Presented at the 2020 Natural Science Archives Study Group, February 26, 2021.
Kono, Hiroto. “From the Discovery of Physicists’ Materials to Their Scholarly and Public Use.” Presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies, December 5, 2020.
Kono, Hiroto. “Problems and Methods in Busseiron at Its Emerging Phase.” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan Autumn Meeting 2020 (Condensed Matter Physics and Other Fields), September 11, 2020.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Formation of a Science of Matter in Wartime Japan and the Role of a Visual Model.” Presented at the 9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, September 1, 2020.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Making of a Science of Substance after Quantum Mechanics in Japan: The Emergence of ‘Busseiron’ around 1940.” Presented at the History of Science Society 2019 Annual Meeting, July 24, 2019.
Kono, Hiroto. “On the Formation Process of ‘Busseiron’ and Its Background in 1930s–40s Japan.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society of Japan, May 26, 2019.
Kono, Hiroto. “Emergence and Transformation of ‘Busseiron’ in the 1930s–40s.” Presented at Tokyo Institute of Technology Kazemi, May 7, 2019.
Kono, Hiroto. “On ‘Kagakusha wa Kawaruka’ by Hitoshi Yoshioka.” Presented at the symposium Yoshioka Hitoshi no Shigoto wo Kangaeru, January 20, 2019.
Kono, Hiroto. “On Ryogo Kubo’s Research in the 1940s–50s.” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan Autumn Meeting 2018 (Condensed Matter Physics and Other Fields), September 11, 2018.
Kono, Hiroto. “A Study on Ryogo Kubo’s Research in Wartime.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society of Japan, May 26, 2018.
Kono, Hiroto. “Ryogo Kubo in the 1940s.” Presented at Tokyo Institute of Technology Kazemi, May 1, 2018.
Kono, Hiroto. “Analysis on Investigation and Punishment in Research Misconduct Cases in Japan.” Presented at the Asia Pacific Research Integrity Network Meeting 2018 New Researchers Workshop, February 25, 2018.
Kono, Hiroto. “The Concept of Entropy in Environmental Movements in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s.” Presented at the Sixth International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science, December 16, 2017.
Kono, H., Andreas W. Rost, N. Takeshita, Y. F. Lu, T. Takayama, and H. Takagi. “Pressure Effect on Ta₂NiCh₅ (Ch = Se, S, Te).” Presented at The Physical Society of Japan 69th Annual Meeting, March 29, 2014.
Comments and Other Contributions
Kono, Hiroto. Comment on the symposium “The Role and Challenges of Social-Science Subjects in Engineering Education at Colleges of Technology: Perspectives from the History of Science and Technology, History, and Philosophy.” Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society of Japan, May 24, 2025.