Small and bespectacled Mrs. Takekoshi Elko in her early 30s is the mother of a six-year-old daughter, but she is carrying on her career as scientist. She is with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute in Tokai village, Ibaraki Pref.

Mrs. Takekoshi had a much longer school life than the majority of women students. Upon graduation from the now defunct Women's Higher Normal School in Nara she entered Kyoto University where she studied nuclear physics for eight years of which five years were in the postgraduate course. The physicist says that while she was at Kyoto University Dr. Hideki Yukawa, internationally-known Nobel Prize winner, was in the. United States, so she could not work under this famed scholar.

Mrs. Takekoshi has been with the research institute since its founding two years ago, experimenting on nuclear fission process. She is one of 10 women scientists at this institute.

The young scientist's name became known to the public when a photo of nuclear fission caused by gamma rays was presented to the physics society in October 1957. She is reluctant about mentioning her achievement, saying she does not want to talk about her past accomplishment.

"With science there is no end in research and my study on nuclear fission will never be completed," states the young scholar.

Explaining about the work at the research institute she continues that the scholars at the institute are in a kind of dilemma. The people who have given money to the institute expect to gain quick results from experiments which can be applied to industries, but theoretical study cannot be immediately put to actual use, a fact which businessmen do not seem to understand, "The institute needs a great deal of funds and the public who do not know physics feel that the institute is wasting money unless tangible results are produced," comments Mrs. Takekoshi.

There are many visitors to the institute, many of whom are ignorant of nuclear energy and the work being done at the institute. Sometimes she feels that too much time is taken up showing guests around. With good humor Mrs. Takekoshi explains that the visitors are classified into three groups, A, B and C. Scholars and students of nuclear physics and the Cabinet ministers come under A class. Those whose line of study is not on nuclear physics but whose understanding of the work of the institute is regarded important, are placed in class B. Others are grouped into C.

"There is a special group fornewsmen, because we feel it important that our work be interpreted to the public through the papers," notes the scientist. Visitors must send in applications beforehand stating their names and professions. Visitors' days are limited to Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.

Mrs. Takekoshi in her private life is the wife of Hidekuni Takekoshi, also a physicist working at the institute. They met and married while at Kyoto University. Their only daughter stays with her grandmother in Tokyo and joins her parents twice a month when they come to To kyo. Mrs. Takekoshi, however, does not think it disadvantageous to live apart from her daughter as she is well taken care of by her mother-in-law and brother's family.

Tsugi Shiraishi. "Women in Science--Mrs. Takekoshi's Metier Study of Nuclear Fission." The Japan Times, March 8, 1959.