Reflections on a career in radio science

Alhough I had some ambiguous interest in the origins of life and of the universe in my childhood, I naively believed that I would be a teacher for local schools because I had good familiar examples, including my father. However, a happy encounter during high school led me to make up my mind to study geophysics, and auroral physics, in particular. It was a book written by Dr. Kazuyo Sakanoi, who studied “flickering aurora,” and was one of the first Japanese women to join an Antarctic wintering team. I was deeply impressed that she accomplished her scientific mission facing a challenging environment, and moreover, she was married.