To the Memory of Professor Tadashi Makita

In memory of the late Professor Tadashi Makita, the first president and the permanent advisor of the Japan Society of High Pressure Science and Technology, this article reviews his personal history, major scientific achievement and his personality including philosophy as a scientist. Dr. Makita was born in Osaka on August 23, 1925. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1948, and a Doctor of Science in Physical Chemistry in 1960 from Kyoto University. After filling various posts at Kyoto Institute of Technology from 1949 to 1966, Dr. Makita moved to Kobe University in1967, where he was a professor of high-pressure physical chemistry in Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering during 22 years. His main works were concerned in the effect of temperature and pressure on the thermophysical and physico-chemical properties of fluids. Dr. Makita received the second Y. S. Touloukian Award at the Eleventh Symposium on Thermophysical Properties in Boulder, Colorado, U. S. A. on June 24, 1991 for his distinguished achievement in the thermophsical property research of fluids under high pressure. He regretfully succumbed to cancer on April 9, 1994 aged 68 years.