I’m working on acceleration and heating of Jupiter’s plasma based on theories and remote sensing by using explorers and space telescope. I also address evolutions of surface and interior “sub surface ocean” of Jupiter’s icy moons, Europa and Ganymede, based on laboratory experiment of plasma irradiation to icy and salty samples to reproduce alteration of surface material. As a member of science instrument team, I’m contributing to ESA(European Space Agency)’s Jupiter icy moon exploration mission JUICE. After 2030, the issues I’m working on will be solved with the JUICE explorer.

In 1990s, when I was an elementary school student, I got interested in the space science thanks to Japanese astronauts who started their activities in the space after another. After some transition of my interests from one to another, when I was a junior high school or high school student, I was strongly interested in cosmology and particle physics because of the interesting approach of these fields that every phenomenon observed in the space is beautifully described by the mathematics. The reason why I entered Tohoku University is also that I wanted to major in the physics. In the undergraduate school, I was impressed with the geophysics that quantitatively reveals planetary environments based on the in-situ measurements with explorers and satellites, which led me to major in it.

Please be interested in something about the nature or society, no matter how trivial it is, and think about its mechanisms. If you feel why it works or want to know the mechanisms, you are already at the entrance to science world. Let’s enjoy the world with us.