Kazuto Saiki
Director
Earth and Space Exploration Centre, Ritsumeikan University
Professor
Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University
PhD in Science ,the University of Tokyo.
After working as a researcher at Université Blaise Pascal in France, an assistant professor and a lecturer at Akita University, and an associate professor at Osaka University, he became a professor at Ritsumeikan University from 2023, as well as he is the director of Earth and Space Exploration Center (ESEC).
He has participated in several lunar exploration projects including JAXA’s KAGUYA project.Currently he takes a role as a development leader of the Multi-band-Camera (MBC) onboard the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), which successfully made a pinpoint landing on the Moon in January 2024, as well as Advanced Lunar Imaging Spectrometer (ALIS) onboard Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX).
He is the author of several books on lunar science, including “Moon is Our Spaceport” (Shin Nihon Shuppansha), which was selected as a book for the junior high school division of the National Youth Book Report Contest in 2017.
