On 23rd September 2022 JAXA Vice President Mr. Ishii, JAXA BoT Member and Head of the JAXA Paris Office, Mr. Sudo, and Mr. Ryota visited the ISU central campus in Strasbourg. The visit followed the signature of a new partnership between the two organizations signed in Paris – for ISU, by ISU’s President Prof. P. Ehrenfreund – on the sidelines of the 73rd International Astronautical Congress in the presence of ISU Chair of the Board of Trustees Dr. C. Sallaberger and ISU North America VP Ken Davidian. This signature strengthens the cooperation and aims at increasing synergies.
The JAXA delegation met with representatives from the ISU Faculty – Prof. N. Peter, Prof. V. Wotring, and Prof. T. Tejumola – to present the Master of Space Studies (MSS) and hear about the academic exchanges between ISU students and Japanese host institutions and JAXA. Prof. Tejumola also presented his research on plasma instrumentation with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) that was born from the HORYU-IV satellite, and his engagement with other researchers under the IAA Study Group 4.26 (CubeSat Interface) on establishing an ISO standard for CubeSat interface (ISO TC 20/SC-14/WG 1) that is currently at the working draft stage. Mr. Karacalioglu presented the Space Studies Program (SSP) and Mr. Bovet, Head of ISU Admissions presented the other ISU programs (SSHP, ESCs) and the diversity of ISU Japanese alumni.
A visit of the ISU facilities followed the discussion. Prof. Wotring presented the ISU research labs, especially the new in-house capabilities in Space Life Sciences Research.
Prof. Peter showed the ISU incubator that hosts the current cohort of incubatees and the JAXA delegation met with ISU MSS11 alumnus and Leanspace CEO Guillaume Tanier.
