Ritsumeikan University has appointed Soichi Noguchi, a former Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut, as special assistant to President Yoshio Nakatani.Mr. Noguchi will become a research advisor at the Space and Earth Exploration Research Center, which was established by Ritsumeikan University in July.
According to Ritsumeikan University, President Nakatani and Mr. Noguchi held an inaugural press conference at Ritsumeikan University's Tokyo Campus in Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. President Nakatani said, ``The next five to 5 years will be a very important period for space development. "There are only 10 people in Japan who have seen this. As one of them, Mr. Noguchi's knowledge is essential to promoting research," he said of the purpose of his appointment.
Mr. Noguchi expressed his enthusiasm, saying, ``Currently, there are many possibilities for careers related to space.I want to inspire students and researchers.''
Mr. Noguchi is 1965 years old and was born in Yokohama in 58. He has completed three spaceflights in total, including flying into space aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005 and a long stay on the International Space Station from 2009 to 2010. He is counted as one of the aviators.
He entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first person in the world to accomplish three types of return to space, and was selected as one of the ``3 people in the world'' by the international NPO ``Genius 100''.He has also served as a specially appointed professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, and the College of Science and Engineering, Nihon University.
