Hokkaido University conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree upon Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano Jr., Director General of the Philippine Space Agency in an official ceremony on January 27, 2023. The ceremony was held in the Hokkaido University Conference Hall, and was attended by university officials, faculty, students, and Dr. Marciano’s family from the Philippines.
Dr. Marciano is a renowned expert in the field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. For more than 20 years, he has made significant contributions to the improvement of Philippines’s advanced science and technology at the University of the Philippines Diliman, the Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines, and the Philippine Space Agency.
Since 2015, he has led the development of micro satellites for scientific earth observation, and together with Hokkaido University, has worked to complete, launch, and subsequently operate the Philippine micro satellites. In March 2020, he went on to become the first Director General of the Philippine Space Agency, and has been committed to the development of space exploration and utilization in the Philippines.
He has also built a stronger relationship with the University by serving as a Hokkaido University Ambassador from 2017 to 2022, participating in the Hokkaido Summer Institute as an invited lecturer since 2016, and even sending Filipino students and researchers for short-term exchanges to the University. In the context of the Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the University and the Philippine Space Agency in March 2022, future exchanges and advancements between Japan and the Philippines aimed at the cultivation of human resources for the space industry at the University are also expected.
Following the conferment ceremony, Dr. Marciano delivered a commemorative lecture titled “Building the Space Value Chain in the Philippines: The Catalytic Role of Hokkaido University and International Cooperation”.
Text and photos provided by Division of International Relations
Source: https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/blog/honorary-doctorate-degree-upon-dr-joel-joseph-s-marciano-jr-director-general-philippine-space-agency/