MISSION POSSIBLE
SPACE x ART
Speaker Bios
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Yuichi Tsuda received his Ph.D. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from University of Tokyo in 2003,and joined Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) in 2003 as a research associate. He became an associate professor in 2014, and a professor in 2020 of ISAS/JAXA. He was a visiting scholar of Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan and Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder in 2008-2009. He was the deputy lead of the IKAROS, the world’s first interplanetary solar sail mission in 2009-2013. He played the leadership role in the Hayabusa2 mission, an asteroid sample-return mission as Project Engineer from 2007 to 2015 and Project Manager from 2015 to 2025, leading to the complete success of the sample return from aste
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Panellists
Rika Nakazawa https://insurance.nttdata.com/profile/rika-nakazawa/
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Rika Nakazawa is a senior technology executive, VC investor, best-selling author, and frequent public speaker on breakthrough innovation from AI, Quantum science, Space-tech, and their transformational impact on industries, society, and the future of economies. She is Executive Head, Global Strategic Innovation at NTT DATA, a leading technology and business services and solutions provider with over 185,000 innovators worldwide. At NTT DATA, she focuses on advancing commercial and sustainability relevance of sustainable AI, Photonic networks and Space & Satellite intelligence in industry development. Rika was recognized on the Forbes 50>50 list in Innovation and for two consecutive years, she has been awarded the “Power 70” and “Power 80” recognitions in the Women of Channel awards by The Channel Co’s CRN network. She has also been ranked as "Top 100 in Emerging Tech" by Women of the Future.
Trilingual in Japanese, German, and English, Rika grew up in Japan and moved to the US to attend Princeton University. Rika lived in Silicon Valley for 18 years and has worked internationally in senior executive roles in strategy, business development, consulting, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies - NVIDIA, Accenture, Capgemini, Sony - and venture-backed startups. She is a digital innovation veteran and has served on multiple boards in AI, Next-gen Computing, Material Science and Cybersecurity ecosystems. Rika is a PhD candidate at the intersection of AI / Quantum and industrial development, and holds a Master's Degree (MSc) from the UK's University of Leeds. She is the author of Amazon bestseller “Dear Chairwoman,” which explores the evolution of corporate board governance. Her second book, featuring the intersection of sustainability, digital innovation, and the pandemic, called “Beyond the Black Swan: How the Pandemic and Digital Innovation Intensified the Sustainability Imperative - Everywhere", was released by business/academic publisher Taylor & Francis. |
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Jun is a Principal at Main Sequence, where he helps Australian scientists and entrepreneurs create, build, and scale the next generation of deep-tech companies that will change the world. Jun focuses on early-stage investments in the industrial-tech and space sectors and sits on the boards of a number of companies in those areas. Jun began his career as a chemical engineer before moving to the US for his MBA at Stanford. He then joined McKinsey, where he served a broad range of clients across heavy industry and advanced manufacturing and led investments into client-facing tech solutions as part of McKinsey Launch. He joined the Main Sequence team in 2021 and is based in Sydney.
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Dr. Melissa Kozul https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/237217-melissa-kozul
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Dr. Melissa Kozul is a Lecturer in Power Generation & Propulsion in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Melissa's research expertise is in the high-fidelity simulation of turbulent fluid flows that play a critical role in energy and transport technologies, enabled via the use of supercomputers. Her most recent work focuses on turbomachinery, investigating the complex air flows around the blades of axial compressors and turbines. Melissa completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2018. Following postdoctoral appointments at NTNU (Trondheim, Norway) and at the University of Melbourne, she commenced the role of Lecturer in 2024.
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Artists
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Laura Skerlj is an artist and writer whose practice centres on painting, its affective and material potentials, and its relationship to writing and language. She has exhibited her work locally and internationally in artist-run, commercial, community and institutional spaces. Laura’s current PhD project explores painting in relation to the cloud as a symptomatic and metamorphic form with the capacity to condense, gesture, dissipate, obscure, estrange, touch, evade, be ever-present.
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Yandell Walton (she/they) is a multi-award-winning artist based on Wurundjeri Country in Melbourne. Her practice spans embodied moving image works presented through immersive and interactive installations that blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual. Walton’s work investigates ideas of impermanence and transformation in relation to environmental change and human impact. Her current PhD project examines cross-species embodiment and distributed agency within computational media art.
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MISA began her career at Kyoto Animation Co., Ltd., where she worked
on a variety of productions including Evangelion and Crayon Shin-chan. She later joined a game development company as a pixel art designer. Currently, she is active as a cutout artist, creating works that explore the profound relationship between the universe and life through her unique perspective on life and death. Her works have also been exhibited in Brisbane, Australia. |
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Satoshi Murakami is a game designer and educator with extensive experience in the video game industry. Formerly with Square Enix Co., Ltd., he contributed to the development of numerous acclaimed titles. His current work focuses on teaching game design, the philosophy of play, and character design at Kyoto University of the Arts, where he helps students explore both the creative and theoretical dimensions of interactive entertainment.
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Masa Kawamukai is a bilingual executive coach, university lecturer, and liberal arts educator whose work explores the intersections of Japanese mythology, contemporary art, science, and cosmology. After earning his Bachelor’s degree and MBA from a liberal arts university in the United States, he has combined extensive international business and academic experience to develop educational and creative projects centered on culture and creativity. As an organizer and speaker at various TEDx events, including TEDxHimi, TEDxKUA (Kyoto University of the Arts), and TEDFest NYC, he examines how Japan’s mythological worldviews and cosmic imagination continue to be expressed through anime and manga.
Beginning his career with the art-based NPO Himming in Himi City, Kawamukai has promoted creative projects rooted in traditional crafts and local culture. Through design thinking and rapid prototyping education, he engages in cross-disciplinary practices that bridge science, art, and spirituality. A former Associate Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts, he currently teaches at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and Yokohama National University, and serves as a visiting professor at RUBIKA’s India campus, where he conducts international lectures and workshops on Japanese mythology, spirituality, and animation. |
COORDINATOR / STEM EDUCATOR
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Sachiko Nishioka is the founder of AWESOME, an organization that connects women in STEM with education and industry by providing educational contents and networks to advance gender and innovation diversity in STEM fields. AWESOME stands for Amazing Women as an Enabler with STEM mind by Organizing, Managing and Executing.
Before founding AWESOME in 2024, she spent 19 years at Procter & Gamble (P&G) as a Group Leader in Material Development with a degree in Biotechnology from Kobe University. She led the Asia Material Team and contributed to over 30 pull-on diaper projects, including the global expansion of the Premium Soft & Printed Belt Initiative (2016). As the first working-mother leader at her location, she served as a role model demonstrating how to leverage both work and life. Today, AWESOME focuses on showcasing diverse role models of women in STEM and on conducting high school outreach through STEM career exploration programs. |