Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa became a research associate and an associate professor at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS/JAXA) in 1993-2003, and an associate professor at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2003-2006. He engaged in numerous spacecraft operations through mission designing of earth-orbiting scientific satellite projects and lunar/interplanetary missions as well as launch vehicle development.

During his professional career at ISAS/JAXA, he was a visiting scientist at NASA JPL in 1997-1998 and at ESA ESTEC in 2002. And he was appointed as the project manager of the ESA-Japan collaborative mission to Mercury “BepiColombo” from 2000 through 2006.

Dr. Yamakawa then moved to Kyoto University in 2006 as a professor at the Research Institute of Sustainable Humanosphere.

During his professorship, he was also appointed as the secretary general at the Secretariat of Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan from 2010 through 2012. Then, he was assigned to a member of the Committee for National Space Policy, Cabinet Office from 2012 through 2018. Since April 2018, Dr. Yamakawa resides as the President of JAXA.