1/24/2025 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
Hiroyasu Tsukamoto’s work in shaping the future of intelligent deep space exploration and developing a mathematical foundation for decision-making under uncertainty caught the eye of MIT’s Technology Review nominators from Japan. Tsukamoto was named one of 10 Innovators Under 35 for 2024. He was also named Outstanding Innovator Award by Dentsu Soken Inc., an honor awarded to only one of the 10 awardees. This past fall, he joined the faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Tsukamoto was selected from a list of over 200 candidates that included entrepreneurs, researchers, and social activists. The award program, that began in 1999 as a list of 100 Innovators, now includes a global list of 35 and additional awards to a select few from specific regions. Japan was added in 2020.
After earning his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2023, Tsukamoto was a postdoctoral researcher in robotics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Prior to his arrival at U. of I., he worked in research and technology development projects for system-level distributed spacecraft autonomy at JPL and Caltech.
His theory has been successfully applied to intelligent guidance and control software for interstellar object exploration with highly unpredictable orbital properties and, more recently, to provably robust architecture for distributed multi-spacecraft networks under interactional uncertainty.
At Illinois, Tsukamoto’s research group focuses on research and education in sustainable and autonomous space exploration, establishing the groundwork for generalized system-level autonomy. He also proactively engages in outreach activities to inspire profound societal interest in space science and engineering using his website, YouTube, and science boot camps for K12 students.
Read the full announcement on the MIT Technology Review website.