Position :

Senior Advisor for director General
Professor Emeritus ISAS/JAXA

Professional Career :

- Research Associate, ISAS  -1983
- Associate Professor, ISAS  -1988
- Professor, ISAS  -2001

- Project Manager, Sounding Rocket Project Team, ISAS,
- Chair for Steering Committee of Space Engineering, ISAS (2005-2011)
- Cheef Engineer, Space Science Program Systems Eng. Office- Apr. 1, 2008 - Mar. 31, 2010
- Senior Chief Officer(SCO), Space Science and Disciplinary Eng. ISAS/JAXA
- Programme Director, Space Science Programme, ISAS/JAXA
- Deputy director General, ISAS (2013-2017)

Societies :

- Member of Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences (1984-)
- President of Japanese Rocket Society (2012-14)
- Member of American Institnte of Aeronautics and Astronantics (1990-)
- Member of International Academy for Astronautics (2014-)

Typical Research Activities :

High speed and hypersonic aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics
Study for reentry vehicle systems, flight vehicle development and flight experiments
Space transportation systems and its Future

Major Award :

The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (2011)

Primary works done

Based on his speciality of hypersonic aerodynamics, reentry systems, space launch systems particularly for the future transportation, he has been serving and taking a lead in many space programs at ISAS since 1980th up to now. Working for Satellite launcher programs such as Mu-series of rocket, he has been contributing to the aerodynamics and system of these launchers. For the reentry program such as Hayabusa asteroidal sample return, he and his team built a returning capsule and recovered the sample from asteroid from super orbital speed in 2010 for the first time in the world.

In Kanko-maru study in the 1990th as a space tourism for general public, his team figured out the world of very frequent and high volume of space launch which carries one million passengers of space travel per year as it is done in the current civil aviation. Reflecting the system requirement to this kind of future vehicle, he took a lead in the reusable vehicle testing program (RVT) in the late 90th for demonstrating frequent reuse and quick turnaround of vertical landing rocket with a liquid hydrogen rocket engine. He highlighted the importance of good reusability necessary for such kind of future vehicle and contributed to a progress in this kind of studies for the coming future in Japan.