Soichi Noguchi, Ph.D.

Astronaut & CTO, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies

Dr. Soichi Noguchi graduated from the Graduate School of University of Tokyo in 1991. His first spaceflight was STS-114 on the space shuttle Discovery in 2005. In 2009, he became the first Japanese flight engineer for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In 2020, he became the first non-American to board on SpaceX spacecraft, participating in the world’s first commercial operation ISS mission (Crew-1). He was the first astronaut in the world to accomplish three different methods of Earth entry, and officially certified by Guinness World Records in two categories. He received YouTube Creator Award with live performance of Chopin from Space. He received distinguished paper award from the of the Japanese Association of Qualitative Psychology for in-depth “Tojisha Kenkyu” (Self-directed Studies) on his cosmic experiences.

He left NASA in 2022, and currently holds several prestigious positions, including Chief Technology Officer of the Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies(IISE), President of IHI Academy, Pro Vice President of Ritsumeikan University, Project Professor at the University of Tokyo, Distinguished Fellow at the World Economic Forum(WEF), Co-Chair, Astronaut Admin Committee, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), and the board of directors, Space Foundation. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, camping, songwriting (Sony Music Artists), and flying airplanes and helicopters (CFII, MEI).