Space Career Pathways: A Filipino Scholar’s Perspective

The space sector is a relatively new industry in the Philippines but has shown plenty of promise. As an emerging space-faring nation, the country focuses on space education and the capacity development of young Filipino scientists and scholars. For the Philippines, there is a potential to develop young talents in space technology to address disaster management, industry development, and other sustainable development challenges.

This World Space Week, SGAC will be hosting a local webinar designed for Filipino students and aspiring space scientists and engineers on pathways to careers in the space sector. Featuring local experts and panelists who were once scholars of the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), this webinar will be moderated by the National Point of Contact for the Philippines of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) – Asia Pacific Region.

Recently, many Filipino students aspire to build a career in space science and engineering, and what they often want is precise information on what exactly the field entails, the related university program options to choose from, the institutes they might explore for higher education, the scholarship funding opportunities, and career prospects.

Join us as we explore the pathways to a fantastic career in space!

Dr. Raynell A. Inojosa is one of the two pioneer scholars of the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Advanced Degrees for Accelerating Strategic Space R&D and Application (AD ASTRA) Scholarship Program. While still pursuing his degree, he applied for and got accepted as a Senior Science Research Specialist at the Spacecraft Payload and Communications Systems Development Division (SPCSDD) of PhilSA. He received his PhD in Electronics Engineering degree at the Batangas State University – The National Engineering University. He underwent a sandwich program at the Laboratory of Lean Satellite and In-Orbit Experiment (LaSEINE) of Kyushu Institute of Technology to conduct the assembly, integration, and testing of his prototype on fractal patch antenna for cube satellite (CubeSat) application.

As a young researcher, Dr. Inojosa attended numerous international conferences and workshops hosted in Japan, the USA, Thailand, South Korea, India, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom to present his research works on ICT for sustainable development, high-frequency engineering, wireless communications, and spacecraft communications subsystem—specifically on antenna technologies. Dr. Inojosa was a former Governor of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of the Philippines (IECEP) – Japan Chapter, a recipient of the 2019 IEEE TOWERs Best Research Award and the 2022 Outstanding Presentation Award by the IEEE Tokyo Section, and was hailed as one of the 2020 Ten Outstanding Electronics Engineers of the Philippines by IECEP, Inc.