Current Projects

• JAXA Program Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission

• JAXA Mission Scientist for the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) 

• Program Scientist for JAXA Precipitation Measuring Mission (PMM) Pre-Project Team

• Co-chairs of The International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) : 2022-2024

• Co-chairs of Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Precipitation Virtual Constellation (P-VC) : 2022-

Professional Employment

• • Senior Researcher, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Nov. 2020 - Today

  • IMS Visiting Professor, Typhoon Science and Technology Research Center, Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Yokohama National University, Apr. 2023 - Today

  • IAS Visiting Professor, Typhoon Science and Technology Research Center, Institute of Advanced Sciences, Yokohama National University, Feb. 2022 - Mar. 2023

  • Associate Senior Researcher, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Apr. 2015 - Oct. 2020

  • Associate Senior Engineer, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Oct. 2014 - Mar. 2015

  • Engineer, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Mar. 2010 - Sep. 2014

  • Researcher, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Oct. 2007 - Mar. 2010

  • Researcher, Japan Science Technology Agency, May 2005 - Sep. 2007 (under Prof. Ken'ichi Okamoto, Osaka Prefecture University) 

  • Postdoctoral fellow, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Apr. 2004 - Apr. 2005 

Educational Background

• • Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kyoto University, 2004 

  • M.S., Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kyoto University, 2001 

  • B.A., Science, Kyoto University, 1999

Award

• JMSJ Award 2021 (Seto, S., T. Iguchi, R. Meneghini, J. Awaka, T. Kubota, T. Masaki, and N. Takahashi, 2021: The Precipitation rate retrieval algorithms for the GPM Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 99, 205-237.) [JMSJ][JMSJ]

• The Gambo-Tatehira Award, the Meteorological Society of Japan in 2019 (Kazumasa Aonashi and Takuji Kubota), as "Achievements related to development of global precipitation map by satellite observations and promotion of its applications in society" [JAXA]

• Prizes for Science and Technology (Science and Technology Promotion Category), the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2016 (Riko Oki, Misako Kachi, Takuji Kubota), as "Promotion of Technology in Near-real-time Satellite Global Precipitation Map"

• NASA Agency Group Achievement Award, 2015, “For exceeding all expectations for GPM operations, data processing, algorithm performance, science impact, and education and public outreach within one year after launch”, as a member of GPM Post-Launch Team.

• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Robert H. Goddard Award (Team), 2015, "For outstanding precipitation retrieval algorithm development to support the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission”, as a member of GPM Algorithm Team.

Research Interests

Japanese Version is Here.