Special Seminar with Masaki Fujimoto (Director General ISAS/JAXA)

JAXA's Way of Space Science

Monday, 2026/06/08, 13:15

This is an image of the 2024 version of the MMX spacecraft during MOI (Martian Orbit Insertion). Thrusters are turned off.
MMX, the first sample return mission from the Martian sphere.
© JAXA

The University of Bern welcomes Masaki Fujimoto, Director General of ISAS/JAXA at the Japanese Space Agency, for a special seminar. To mark the beginning of an international outreach collaboration on JAXA's Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) space mission with the participation of the Center for Space and Habitability, Masaki Fujimoto will hand over a model of the MMX space probe to Virginia Richter, Rector of the University of Bern.

Event organizer: Center for Space and Habitability (CSH), University of Bern
Speaker: Various
Date: 08.06.2026
Time: 13:15 - 15:00
Locality: Room 210 (Aula)
University of Bern, Main Building
Hochschulstrasse 4
3012 Bern
Registration: Please register here (online participation possible)
Characteristics: open to the public
free of charge

This special seminar features talks from Masaki Fujimoto and Tomoko Ojima from JAXA/ISAS as well as researchers at the University of Bern. The event will be moderated by Audrey Vorbuger, Assistant Professor at the Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences of the University of Bern.

The event will be held in person but online participation via Zoom is possible. If you would like to participate remotely, please select 'online' in the registration form and you will be sent the access information the morning of the event.

Program Overview

 

Time

Topic

Speakers
13:15 Welcome Address

Virginia Richter
Masaki Fujimoto
Brice-Olivier Demory
13:30

Successful joint Japanese-Swiss Space Exploration

 Raphael Marschall
13:40

From Curation to Outreach: Activities for Asteroid Return Samples at ISAS, JAXA  

 Tomoko Ojima
13:50 Origin and Evolution of the Martian Moon Phobos Martin Jutzi
14:00 JAXA's way of space science

Masaki Fujimoto
14:30 Questions from the Audience All
14:45 Coffee Break All

Speakers

University of Bern

Prof. Virginia Richter, Rector UniBE

Virginia Richter is Rector of the University of Bern, Professor of Modern English Literature. She studied English, Comparative and German Literature at the University of Munich, and also obtained there her PhD in Comparative Literature and her habilitation in English and Comparative Literature. Her leadership experience includes service as Vice Rector International and Academic Careers, Head of the Department of English, President of the Institute of Advanced Study (now Walter Benjamin Kolleg), and Vice Dean and Dean of the Humanities at the University of Bern; she was also President of the Forum for University and Society and Vice President of the Swiss Association of University Teachers in English.

Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA)

Dr. Masaki Fujimoto, Director General ISAS / Vice President JAXA

Dr. Fujimoto joined JAXA in 2006 as a Professor in the Department of Solar System Sciences. He played a key role in establishing the framework that enabled Japanese scientists to participate in ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury and the JUICE mission to the Jovian system. In December 2020, he supported the recovery operation of the Hayabusa2 sample return capsule in Australia under the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also one of the founding members of the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, a mission to return samples from Phobos, one of the Martian moons.

Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern

Prof. Brice-Olivier Demory, Director CSH

Brice-Olivier Demory is Director of the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Bern. He obtained his MSc in physics from EPFL and PhD from the University of Geneva. He spent three years at MIT to work on NASA space missions and three others at the University of Cambridge (UK). In Bern he leads an interdisciplinary research group focusing on 1) novel instrumentation for medical applications, 2) the search for life in our solar system and 3) the detection of Earth-like exoplanets. He strives to develop societal applications through his research, from cancer research to education in developing countries. He is a recipient of the Royal Society and Rutherford Research Fellowships.

Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern

Prof. Raphael Marschall, Associate Professor of Experimental Physics

Raphael Marschall is a planetary physicist and Associate Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Bern. Previously, he has worked at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice (France), and the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder (CO, USA). His primary scientific interest is understanding the formation and evolution of our Solar System. He study and analyse data acquired by interplanetary spacecraft. In particular, he has used data sets collected by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft Rosetta to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, NASA’s Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, and the forthcoming Comet Interceptor mission to a dynamically new comet, to understand the evolution of small bodies. Recently, he has also focused on understanding how planetesimals form in the early protoplanetary disk.

Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA)

Tomoko Ojima, Associate Senior Researcher

Ms. Tomoko Ojima is a member of the Astromaterials Science Research Group at ISAS/JAXA. Her work focuses on the curation of asteroid return samples from Hayabusa2, as well as outreach and exhibition activities using returned samples. She also has experience in science education at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo and in the curation and exhibition of Antarctic meteorites at the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan.

Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern

PD Dr. Martin Jutzi, Senior Researcher

Martin Jutzi is a Dozent in the Space Research & Planetary Sciences division at the University of Bern. His research focuses on impact modeling and the collisional evolution of small bodies, moons, and planets in the Solar System. His work has contributed to understanding asteroid disruption, crater formation, comet morphology, and planetary-scale collisions, as well as to interpreting data from space missions such as DART, Hera, and Hayabusa2. He is also involved in the Ramses mission, Psyche, and the upcoming MMX mission.

Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern

Prof. Audrey Vorburger, Assistant Professor

Audrey Vorburger is an assistant professor at the University of Bern. She has dedicated her career to the exploration of planets and moons in our solar system using mass spectrometry. Her research focuses on understanding their atmospheres and compositions, providing insights into their origins and the potential for life beyond Earth. She has contributed to several major space missions, including Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission; MESSENGER and BepiColombo, NASA and ESA missions to Mercury; and, more recently, JUICE and Europa Clipper, ESA and NASA missions exploring Jupiter and its icy moons.