6/25/2025 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
Hiroyasu Tsukamoto has been named Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 in its Healthcare and Science category.
In 2024, Tsukamoto joined the faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Prior to this position, he was a postdoctoral researcher in robotics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Tsukamoto holds a Ph.D. in space engineering from the California Institute of Technology, where his thesis won the William F. Ballhaus Prize for Outstanding Dissertation in 2023.
At U. of I., he runs the N-ACXIS Laboratory which is researching sustainable autonomous space mission design—bringing together control theory, AI, spacecraft, robots and humans. 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.
Tsukamoto was also named one of the 2024 MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 in Japan and was a visiting scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2023-2024. He was also named Outstanding Innovator Award by Dentsu Soken Inc., an honor awarded to only one of the 10 awardees.
Read the full announcement on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia website.